WIT  T I  AM  A'MrKF 

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MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

WILLIAM       A.       McKEEVER 


MAN  AND  THE 
NEW   DEMOCRACY 


By 

WILLIAM  A.  McKEEVER,  Pn.M.,  LL.D. 

UNIVERSITY  OF  KANSAS 

AUTHOR  OF  "TRAINING  THE  BOY,"  "TRAINING  THE  GIRL," 

"PSYCHOLOGY  AND  HIGHER  LIFE,"  "FARM  BOYS 

AND  GIRLS,"  ETC.,  ETC. 


NEW  ^Sir  YORK 
GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,  1919, 
BY  GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 


TO 

THE  MILLIONS  OF  SPLENDID  YOUNG  AMERICANS 
WHO  MARCHED  BRAVELY  AWAY  TO  THE  WAR 
FOR  HUMAN  LIBERTY  AND  THERE  THROUGH  RIGID 
DISCIPLINE  DISCOVERED  FOR  THEMSELVES  MUCH 
OF  THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  COMING  DEMOCRACY, 
THIS  BOOK  IS  HUMBLY  DEDICATED 


J 


A  CHALLENGE 

The  greatest  tragedy  in  the  history  of  mankind  is 
now  in  its  closing  stages : 
Ten  million  slain. 
A  hundred  million  homeless. 
Countless  millions  wretched  and  sad. 

But  the  cause  of  this  terrible  affair  has  not  been 
sounded  to  its  depths.  And  the  reconstruction — the 
general  plan  for  healing  the  awful  wound — is  that  not 
in  danger  of  being  dominated  by  superficialities  and 
threatened  with  a  descent  into  the  old  rut  out  of  which 
society  for  the  time  being  has  floundered  ? 

So  it  is  the  purpose  of  the  discussions  which  follow 
to  offer  a  radically  new  interpretation  of  the  world 
war  and  a  plan  for  the  reconstruction  of  civilization 
which  would  practically  reverse  the  old  order  of 
things. 

Wherefore,  this  text  is  meant  as  a  modest  but  posi- 
tive challenge  to  thinking  men  and  women  to  throw 
themselves  into  the  momentous  problem  of  designing 
some  new  plan  of  existence  for  the  common  individ- 
ual. The  old  one  is  threadbare  and  can  scarcely  ever 
be  satisfactorily  mended. 

WILLIAM  A.  MCKEEVER. 
LAWRENCE,  KANSAS. 


vii 


CONTENTS 
PART  ONE:  THE  QUEST  OF  SOCIETY 

CHAPTER  PAGB 

I  SEEKING  THE  HEART  or  HUMANITY       .     .  13 

II  A  LITTLE  CHILD  SHALL  LEAD  THEM      .     .  23 

III  THE  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  MAN       ....  34 

IV  CREATIVE  DEMOCRACY 43 

V  THE  REGENERATION  OF  BUSINESS    ...  53 

VI  WORK  AS  A  MEANS  OF  SALVATION   ...  63 

VII  A  NEW  INTERPRETATION  OF  MOTHERHOOD  73 

VIII  ADOLESCENT  LOVE  AS  HUMAN  WELFARE  .  83 

IX  RELIGION  AS  A  PART  OF  DEMOCRACY     .     .  94 

X  HEALTH  AS  AN  ELEMENT  OF  CIVILISATION  105 

XI  A  CHANGED  CONCEPTION  OF  LOYALTY      .  117 

XII  WAR  AS  DRAMATISED  ALTRUISM       .     .     .  127 

PART  TWO:  THE  QUEST  OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL 

XIII  ARE  WE  READY  FOR  DEMOCRACY?  .     .     .  141 

XIV  REORGANISATION  FROM  WITHIN       .     .     .  148 
XV  MAKING  LIFE  WORTH  WHILE     ....  159 

XVI  THE  SPIRIT  OF  SACRIFICE 167 

XVII  OPTIMISM  AS  COMMON  SENSE    .     .     .     .  175 

ix 


x  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XVIII  THE  DANGERS  OF  OBSESSION  .  .  .  .  181 

XIX  SENSE  AND  SENTIMENT 191 

XX  THE  WAR  ON  WHITE  SLAVERY  .  .  .  204 

XXI  THE  INDIVIDUAL  AND  ALTRUISM  .  .  .  214 

XXII  ANOTHER  GREAT  STRUGGLE  COMING  .  .  223 

XXIII  PSYCHOLOGY  AND  HUMAN  BETTERMENT  .  233 

XXIV  BRINGING  UP  THE  NEXT  GENERATION  .  242 


MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 


MAN  AND  THE 
NEW  DEMOCRACY 


SEEKING  THE  HEART  OF  HUMANITY 

Out  of  the  wreck  of  the  recent  inglorious  past  I 
?l*e  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth  arising  and  coming 
with  arms  outstretched  to  meet  each  other  in  the 
heart  of  common  humanity.  The  endless  tangle  of 
the  great  implements  of  warfare  which  lie  scattered 
over  the  vast  battle  area  in  Europe — representing 
billions  of  wealth  and  the  best  which  the  scientific 
effort  of  man  could  produce — that  mountainous  heap 
of  wreckage  is  symbolic  of  the  contempt  of  the 
Almighty  for  the  so-called  achievements  of  modern 
civilisation.  And  all  this  amounts  to  a  demand  for 
a  revolutionary  change  in  man's  mode  of  directing 
his  own  life  on  the  earth. 

But  now  a  new,  strange  hour  was  struck.  Old 
things  are  passing  away,  all  things  are  to  be  defined 
anew.  Merchandise,  material  goods,  money;  these 
are  but  trash  in  a  heap.  Common  Man  is  the  greatest 
thing  in  the  world,  while  all  things  else  are  to  be 
interpreted  in  terms  of  his  nature  and  needs.  To 

13 


i4      MAN  &&0THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

have  value,  to  have  a  part  in  the  world's  real  progress, 
other  things  must  first  be  related  to  him. 

A  wounded  soldier  who  lay  in  the  hospital  in  un- 
conscious delirium  for  four  days  suddenly  awakened 
at  morning  and  asked,  "Is  it  the  rising  or  the  setting 
sun?"  An  attendant  quickly  replied,  "It  is  the  rising 
sun  and  the  beginning  of  a  bright  new  day."  So  with 
the  great  nations — for  more  than  four  years  drawn 
into  a  mad  delirium  of  slaughter  forced  upon  them 
by  the  insane  lust  of  Prussia.  For  them  a  new  light 
is  now  breaking  and  the  answer  to  their  earnest  in- 
quiry is  this:  It  is  the  rising  sun  and  the  dawn  of 
a  new  era  for  the  human  race. 


RECOVERY  OF  LOST  MAN 

Yes,  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world  is  Man.  And 
yet,  during  the  recent  epoch  of  material  prosperity 
he  became  gradually  submerged.  Science,  art,  com- 
merce, business  affairs — these  were  being  pursued  as 
ends  in  themselves  and  not  for  tfye  sake  of  that  greater 
thing,  common  humanity.  And  when  once  Man  had 
been  lost  out  of  them,  then,  Good  was  lost  also  and 
they  had  to  go  down  in  a  momentous  crash. 

Now,  the  way  we  are  to  get  these  over-prized  mate- 
rials back  and  into  their  true  place  in  the  world  is 
through  a  sort  of  re-discovery  of  Man.  "When  I 
consider  Thy  heaven,  the  work  of  Thy  fingers,  the 
moon  and  stars  which  Thou  hast  ordained,  what  is 
Man  that  Thou  art  mindful  of  him  and  the  Son  of 
Man,  that  Thou  visitest  him?"  The  ancient  poet 
and  seer  has  thus  voiced  the  momentous  question  of 


SEEKING  THE  HEART  OF  HUMANITY     15 

the  ages.  And  in  this  day  of  confusion  and  turmoil 
it  stands  out  as  the  problem  around  which  all  the 
others  centre.  What  is  Man?  What  is  in  the  great 
common  human  nature?  What  is  the  great  store- 
house of  potential  qualities  which  an  Infinite  Wisdom 
has  placed  inherently  in  the  heart  of  common 
humanity? 

Once  let  the  people  all  become  acquainted  with  the 
answer  to  the  foregoing  mighty  question  and  we  shall 
have  the  key  to  the  best  possible  after-war  reconstruc- 
tion and  the  guide  to  a  continuous  upward  climb  of 
the  race.  To  know  humanity  is  to  know  one's  self; 
to  understand  the  great  universal  human  nature  is  to 
love  it;  and  thus  to  love  one's  own  life  is  to  possess 
the  secret  of  individual  self -direction  and  of  racial 
self-government.  So,  a  re-discovered,  redeemed,  re- 
directed common  humanity ;  this  is  the  task  of  the  cen- 
turies. It  is  not  a  just  division  of  the  spoils,  a  distri- 
bution of  the  goods,  a  re-alignment  of  the  opportuni- 
ties; it  is  rather  a  cordial  understanding  of  what  is  in 
the  nature  of  Man,  and  the  resultant  happy  fellow- 
ship of  all  men  in  bringing  the  world  back  out  of 
chaos — such  is  the  mighty  spiritual  transformation 
which  now  holds  in  promise  the  remaking  of  human 
society. 

A  FALSE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  MAN 

But  let  us  see  how  a  false  philosophy  has  thrown 
the  world  down,  and  we  shall  then  understand  how 
a  greater  spiritual  power  must  be  depended  upon  to 
lift  it  up.  If  we  accept  the  statement  that  the  greatest 


16      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

thing  in  the  world  is  Man  we  must  likewise  agree  that 
the  greatest  thing  in  Man  is  mind.  That  is,  mind  is 
the  greatest  agency  of  his  progress  and  achievement 
here  on  the  earth.  It  is  right  or  wrong  thinking  which 
makes  or  breaks  a  people.  Philosophy,  the  effective 
ideal,  the  habitual,  unified  way  in  which  a  people  think 
of  themselves  and  of  the  other  peoples  of  the  race — 
such  is  the  most  powerful  instrument  in  the  posses- 
sion of  Man  to-day.  Let  me  prescribe  the  philosophy 
of  any  people  as  thus  defined  and  I  will  outline  their 
destiny  in  advance.  Science,  art,  commerce,  human 
traffic  large  and  small — these  will  in  time  likewise 
become  mere  instruments  to  be  used  constructively  or 
destroyed  wantonly  at  the  demands  of  the  philosophic 
ideals  held  in  common  by  any  nation  of  people. 

THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  THE  SUPERMAN 

So  with  the  philosophy  of  the  superman  of 
Nietzsche.  A  half  century  ago  it  was  an  innocent, 
enticing  plaything  for  the  select  few,  the  parlour  group. 
Then  it  became  a  topic  for  passionate  study  among 
the  universities  and  the  secondary  schools.  Finally, 
its  phrases,  its  language,  began  to  roll  easily  upon  the 
tongue  of  common  speech.  The  superman,  the  cold 
intellectual  genius,  the  brilliant  manipulator  of  power 
and  authority,  intolerant  of  human  sympathy,  impa- 
tient with  petty  states  which  would  get  in  the  way  of 
his  purposes;  the  proclaimer  of  an  infatuating  scheme 
of  dominating  the  world  and  of  building  upon  the 
ruin  a  mighty  empire;  a  deified  being  whose  might 
makes  right  and  who  is  therefore  justified  in  circum- 


SEEKING  THE  HEART  OF  HUMANITY     17 

venting  all  known  morals  of  people  and  nations — such 
is  the  monster  who  first  enticed  the  Prussians,  whose 
ideals  slowly  became  a  national  obsession  and  finally 
plunged  them  into  an  insane  lust  for  power  and 
supremacy. 

It  was  this  obsession  of  the  superman  which  created 
the  terrible  war  machine,  which  mobilised  a  blood- 
thirsty army  and  which  drew  all  mankind  into  a  hide- 
ous dance  of  death.  Wrong  thinking  on  the  part  of 
the  masses,  false  ideals  about  Common  Man  and  his 
mission  in  life,  a  murderous  philosophy  of  divine 
right  of  kings  and  of  common  men  as  their  helpless 
pawns, — this  is  the  devilish  power  which  overthrew 
the  world  and  the  converse  of  which  is  to  set  it  up 
again. 

THE  GREAT  COMMON   MAN 

And  so,  we  of  the  allied  nations  were  compelled  to 
engage  in  not  one  but  two  great  wars:  the  war  of 
material  and  the  war  of  mind,  the  war  of  physical 
force  and  the  war  of  philosophy.  We  were  com- 
pelled to  mobilise  a  great  and  terrific  war  machine, 
more  powerful  than  the  enemy's,  with  which  to  crush 
him.  To  the  shops,  the  factories,  the  mines,  the 
forests  and  the  laboratories  we  hurried  away  and 
finally  brought  out  a  mountain  to  roll  over  him.  To 
the  farms,  the  marts  of  trade,  the  centres  of  indus- 
try and  the  schools  we  turned  quickly  and  called  and 
disciplined  a  vast  horde  of  hitherto  untrained  warriors 
to  push  this  rolling  mass  along.  In  its  physical  as- 
pects the  gathering  of  our  war  forces  was  perhaps  the 
most  magical  drama  of  the  ages. 


i8      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

But  let  us  not  have  our  finer  vision  obscured  by  the 
easily  observed  and  tangible  achievements  of  a  mate- 
rial nature,  for  such  is  but  a  by-product  of  the 
mightier  thing  undertaken,  through  the  organisation 
of  a  new  cosmic  philosophy  and  through  the  reor- 
ganisation of  the  common  mind.  In  ten  thousand 
places  at  once  and  through  a  series  of  many  months, 
in  ten  thousand  published  prints  and  through  a  series 
of  many  publications,  we  engaged  the  millions  in  an 
effort  to  think  of  humanity  in  terms  of  the  stirring 
world  events  and  to  interpret  the  war  drama  in  the 
light  of  a  possible  new  destiny. 

Wherefore,  to  match  and  finally  overcome  the  cruel 
and  lustful  philosophy  of  the  superman  we  slowly  or- 
ganised and  gave  to  the  public  mind  the  clear  and 
startling  philosophy  of  the  Common  Man.  And, 
outside  of  Heaven's  old  established  laws,  this  is  the 
greatest  force  at  work  in  the  world  to-day. 

The  Great  Common  Man — born  here  and  there  and 
yonder  among  the  so-called  high  and  low  alike;  pos- 
sessing potentially  the  great  inherent  qualities  which 
God  has  implanted  in  all  the  normal  children  of  the 
race;  slowly  trained  and  developed  through  the  trial- 
and-error  experiences  common  to  all  the  children  of 
all  people;  imbued  with  a  passion  to  laugh,  to  labour, 
to  love  and  to  look  up  toward  heaven  in  fellowship 
with  all;  stirred  by  an  ardent  desire  to  be  of  service 
to  mankind  and  sympathetically  to  help  lift  the  race 
to  higher  things.  This  is  the  type  of  the  Great  Com- 
mon Humanity  which  is  the  material  expression  of 
that  mightiest  thing  with  which  the  world  must 
reckon  to-day — the  accepted  ideal  of  a  new  democracy. 


SEEKING  THE  HEART  OF  HUMANITY       19 

THE   RE-DISCOVERY   OF    AMERICA 

Columbus  discovered  America  in  1492 — the  plains, 
the  mountains,  the  valleys — the  physical  America. 
But,  since  our  entrance  into  the  war,  all  of  us  have 
been  busy  as  never  before  discovering  America  anew 
— the  great  soul  of  America  which  lay  dormant  here 
in  the  heart  of  humankind.  It  is  a  thrilling  story,  this 
re-discovery  of  ourselves,  of  the  superb  human  nature 
hidden  within  us  and  the  ways  whereby  this  treasury 
of  divine  gifts  might  be  opened  and  put  into  the 
service  of  the  world.  Such  a  charming  affair  deserves 
the  inspired  pen  of  the  poet  to  do  it  full  justice. 
However,  a  prose  sketch  may  serve  our  purpose  here 
reasonably  well. 

There  was  a  day  of  darkness  after  we  first  entered 
the  war.  The  throngs  of  young  men  who  volun- 
teered for  the  army  were  piteously  unfit.  More  than 
seventy-five  per  cent  of  them,  by  the  traditional  rules 
of  recruiting  should  have  been  rejected.  They  were 
flat  chested,  flabby  muscled,  knock-kneed,  bent  over, 
slouching,  shambling,  underdeveloped,  diseased. 
What  was  the  country  to  do  for  men?  A  national 
scandal  was  threatened  if  the  people  should  learn 
the  facts  regarding  this  supposed  inherent  physical 
weakness  of  our  young  manhood. 

After  a  serious  consultation  of  the  leaders  a  policy 
was  finally  decided  which  led  to  what  will  prove  to 
be  the  most  startling  educational  fact  of  the  century, 
namely,  that  the  alleged  degeneracy  of  our  common 
manhood  was  false,  that  the  inherent  and  superb  racial 
qualities  simply  lay  hidden  in  the  inner  nature  of 


20      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

the  ordinary  individual  and  had  been  obscured  there 
and  almost  forgotten  from  lack  of  proper  training. 
So,  some  one  wiser  than  his  age  demanded :  Let  us 
take  this  weak,  fragmentary  young  manhood  and  see 
if  a  rigid  course  of  training  and  medication  will  not 
bring  something  good  out  of  it.  And  lo,  it  came  to 
pass.  The  results  were  magical.  A  strict  regime  of 
exercise,  marching,  manual  of  arms,  medicine,  inocu- 
lation, balanced  diet,  adequate  sleep  and  rest,  freedom 
from  dissipation,  direction  of  the  mind  upon  the  task 
at  hand  and  the  great  altruistic  purpose  of  the  nation 
— all  this,  I  say,  brought  results  that  were  most  start- 
ling. 

Under  the  magic  course  of  enforced  discipline  the 
so-called  degeneracy  of  the  young  men  in  training  was 
literally  driven  out  of  their  systems.  Hard,  tense 
muscular  tissues;  broad,  expanding  chests;  clear, 
ruddy  skin;  straight,  erect  forms;  firm,  elastic  foot- 
steps; freedom  from  pain  and  disease;  almost  super- 
human power  of  resistance;  a  mind  set  strong  and 
high  on  the  lofty  ideals  of  the  new  mission  of  the 
race;  a  spirit  that  reached  in  strange  and  delectable 
ways  out  toward  the  great  mysteries  of  human  exist- 
ence— such  is  an  outline  of  the  re-discovered,  reor- 
ganised and  redeemed  human  nature  which  was  found 
to  lie  potentially  within  practically  all  our  young  army 
recruits. 

This  greatest  find  of  our  age,  this  discovery  of  the 
eternal  una wakened  soul  of  divinity  slumbering  in 
the  heart  of  our  common  nature,  has  placed  a  badge 
of  falsity  upon  the  cry  of  the  pessimists  and  all  the 
proclaimers  of  racial  degeneracy.  On  the  other  hand, 


SEEKING  THE  HEART  OF  HUMANITY    21 

it  has  given  us,  both  as  individuals  and  as  a  people, 
the  basis  for  the  most  stirring  vision,  the  most  cheer- 
ing hope,  that  has  thus  far  come  to  us  within  the 
present  generation. 


A  GREAT  SPIRITUAL  QUEST 

And  now  we  begin  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  mighty 
mission  of  the  world  war  which  began  as  a  struggle 
for  domain  and  for  selfish  supremacy.  It  slowly  de- 
veloped into  a  great  spiritual  crusade,  a  whole  world 
seeking  the  heart  of  Humanity.  Its  bloody  battles 
were  the  necessary  and  terrible  consequences  of  the 
beastly  philosophy  of  the  superman  materialised  into 
a  ponderous  machine  of  murderous  destruction.  The 
slowing  up  of  this  sickening  slaughter  gradually 
cleared  the  atmosphere  so  that  the  generous  and  sym- 
pathetic ideals  of  the  Common  Man  could  manifest 
themselves.  As  the  hosts  of  the  Allies  moved  on,  meet- 
ing the  enemy  with  his  own  stern  force  as  the  only 
means  of  stopping  his  murderous  work,  it  began  to  be 
observed  by  warriors  and  non-combatants  alike  that  a 
spirit  of  sympathy  and  altruism  was  doing  its  work 
among  the  conquerors.  The  sick  and  starving  civil- 
ians were  being  tenderly  cared  for,  the  maimed  and 
wounded  were  receiving  every  help  which  a  humane 
purpose  could  devise,  and  even  the  yielding  enemy 
himself  was  accorded  a  form  of  treatment  so  generous 
that  it  almost  stunned  him. 

So,  having  of  necessity  at  first  rushed  forward  with 
their  physical  defences,  the  Allied  nations  slowly  be- 
came infatuated  with  the  wonderfully  generous  spirit 


22      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

which  marked  their  closing  campaigns.  More  and 
more  their  hearts  warmed  with  the  mission  which 
God  seemingly  had  placed  in  their  hands;  to  carry  to 
all  the  peoples  of  the  world  the  story  that  they  had 
found  the  heart  of  humanity  and  that  the  heavenly 
message  from  this  great  source  was  an  exhortation 
to  bring  freedom,  contentment  and  a  peaceful  good- 
will to  all  who  dwell  upon  the  earth. 


II 

A  LITTLE  CHILD  SHALL  LEAD  THEM 

On  a  certain  day,  when  the  trenches  of  the  two 
great  opposing  armies  were  drawn  close  together,  a 
little  three-year-old  child  suddenly  ran  out  upon  No- 
Man's-Land.  Quickly  the  roar  of  the  big  guns  nearby 
was  hushed  and  every  form  of  fighting  at  that  part 
of  the  line  stopped  as  if  the  ammunition  were  all  spent. 
In  the  midst  of  this  quiet  a  big,  sturdy  soldier  walked 
out  upon  the  deadly  zone  unmolested,  and  carried  the 
child  back  to  the  trench.  There  was  applause  from 
both  sides,  and  then  quickly  the  battle  was  renewed. 

So  a  little  child  shall  lead  them.  At  that  particular 
time  it  was  the  only  thing  under  heaven  which  could 
have  stopped  the  struggle,  even  for  a  moment.  And 
the  appearance  of  this  infantile  visitor  is  symbolic 
of  the  startling  challenge  which  innocent  childhood, 
rightly  understood,  is  ready  to  present  to  this  blood- 
stained age.  Man  is  indeed  the  greatest  thing  in  the 
world,  but  the  greatest  thing  among  all  mankind  is 
the  normal,  unspoiled  infant. 

CHILDHOOD   WINS   THE   WAR 

No  war  is  ever  finally  won  on  the  field  of  battle  no 
matter  how  completely  one  side  may  be  vanquished. 
The  real  winning  of  the  conflict  is  tested  out  and 

23 


24      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

proved  in  the  years  of  reconstruction  and  redirection 
which  follow.  For  nearly  a  half  century  the  German 
people  lived  under  the  belief  that  they  had  won  in  the 
Franco-Prussian  war,  but  recent  events  have  proved 
that  they  lost  ignominiously.  They  conquered  on  the 
battlefield,  it  is  true,  but  they  won  no  real  victory 
there,  simply  because  they  afterward  failed  to  deal 
justly  and  magnanimously  with  a  yielding  foe. 

And  now  I  see  no  great  and  inspiring  hope  for  the 
temporal  salvation  of  the  race  to  come  out  of  the 
results  of  the  great  world  war  except  as  the  way  is 
revealed  in  the  nature  of  our  common  childhood.  If 
there  is  to  be  permanent  peace  on  the  earth  its  out- 
line is  written  in  the  potential  nature  of  the  human 
infant.  If  a  real  democracy  is  possible  for  mankind, 
then  its  implications  and  guiding  forces  will  be  found 
by  an  examination  of  the  age-old  racial  qualities  in- 
herent in  the  unspoiled  childhood  of  the  race. 

THE  CHILD  ETERNAL 

If  the  would-be  rulers  of  the  earth  could  only  pause 
for  a  time  upon  some  high  position  and  witness  the 
coming  into  the  world  of  the  great  constant  stream  of 
infantile  life,  it  seems  to  me  that  they  might  be  stag- 
gered by  its  apparent  significance.  If  they  could  look 
far  back  into  Time  as  well  as  completely  around  the 
globe,  as  observers  of  this  miraculous  procession,  they 
might  discern  two  aspects  of  infant  nature  which 
most  prominently  suggest  the  key  to  human  progress : 
the  one,  the  eternality  of  the  child  nature;  the  other, 
its  universality. 


A  LITTLE  CHILD  SHALL  LEAD  THEM     25 

There  is  positively  no  evidence  to  show  that  the 
essential  elements  of  human  nature  have  taken  on  a 
fundamental  or  specially  significant  change  since  the 
beginning  of  recorded  history.  Man  is  not  only  the 
greatest  but  he  is  also  the  most  persistent  thing  in 
the  world.  Terrific  wars  may  come  and  go,  disease 
and  pestilence  may  decimate  the  ranks  of  the  living, 
mighty  catastrophes  among  the  elements  may  in  places 
dissever  the  very  continents,  but  in  his  sturdy  racial 
form  Man  will  always  come  out  of  it  with  a  smiling 
face.  Thus  it  is  with  the  innocent,  helpless  progeny 
of  Man.  The  same  bright,  childish  play  and  prattle 
cheers  the  scene  everywhere  as  it  did  at  the  time 
when,  thousands  of  years  ago,  the  phrase  heading  this 
chapter  was  significantly  coined.  The  same  general 
set  of  instincts,  impulses  and  desires  awaken  serially 
out  of  the  young  growing  life  to-day  as  was  the  case 
when  Good  Old  Socrates  discoursed  so  ably  upon  the 
immortality  of  the  soul. 

Nothing  in  the  foregoing  is  intended  to  imply  a 
disbelief  in  the  accepted  theory  of  evolution.  But 
"a  thousand  years  in  Thy  sight  are  but  as  yesterday 
when  it  is  passed,  and  as  a  watch  in  the  night."  The 
processes  of  evolution  are  so  slow  that  for  practical 
matters  of  education  and  self -direction  any  given  gen- 
eration may  well-nigh  ignore  them. 

THE  CHILD  UNIVERSAL 

Perhaps  even  more  significant  than  the  eternality 
of  childhood,  as  defined  above,  is  the  universality 
thereof.  There  is  positively  no  evidence  to  show  any 


26      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

fundamental  difference  in  the  inherent  qualities  of 
the  infants  among  the  different  nationalities.  There 
is  some  difference  in  degree  of  the  common  attributes 
but  there  is  no  essential  difference  in  kind.  That  is  to 
say,  all  the  normal  children  of  all  the  people  the 
world  round  are  born  with  a  definite  set  of  potential 
qualities  which  tend  to  work  themselves  out  in  a 
universal  serial  order  during  the  period  of  growth, 
training  and  general  experience.  In  other  words,  all 
the  great  and  significant  racial  qualities,  all  the  natural 
traits,  appetites,  desires  and  aspirations  important  for 
the  unity  and  self -directed  progress  of  mankind — 
these  are  practically  the  same  among  all  tribes  and 
nations. 

The  reader  must  certainly  appreciate  the  point  of 
view  presented  above  and  the  conclusion  of  the  mat- 
ter; namely,  that  the  human  child  as  we  have  him 
to-day  may  be  accepted  as  the  surest  guide  to  the 
way  out  of  the  bloody  tangle  into  which  our  so-called 
civilisation  has  recently  fallen.  Because  of  the  per- 
sistence, the  comparative  invariableness  and  the  uni- 
versal character  of  the  qualities  in  this  common  infant 
he  is  worthy  of  the  most  profound  study  of  the  states- 
men, the  rulers  and  the  leaders  of  human  affairs  every- 
where. The  legislative,  the  judicial,  the  executive 
measures  which  do  violence  to  the  ordinary  child  na- 
ture or  which  fail  to  recognise  the  fact  that  a  firm 
civilisation  can  only  be  built  along  lines  indicated  by 
this  ever  recurring  infant  humanity — such  measures 
will  sooner  or  later  lead  us  upon  the  shoals. 


A  LITTLE  CHILD  SHALL  LEAD  THEM     27 

THE  BASIS  OF  UNITY 

The  all-sufficient  tie  which  binds  the  race  together, 
therefore,  and  which  makes  possible  an  eternal  unity 
of  fellowship  and  progress  is  the  world-round  com- 
mon nature  of  the  common  child.  And  to  study  this 
infantile  inheritance  in  a  systematic,  and  yet  not 
necessarily  an  intensive,  manner  is  to  hasten  the  day  of 
universal  peace  and  good-will  upon  the  earth.  It  is 
not  blood  but  experience  which  unifies  a  people.  It  is 
not  hearsay  and  guess  or  traditional  belief  which 
finally  determines  human  progress,  but  a  presenta- 
tion of  the  facts  before  the  public  mind. 

And,  now,  at  the  close  of  this  period  of  bloody  tur- 
moil there  should  be  ushered  in  an  epoch  of  universal 
child  study.  I  care  not  who  makes  the  laws  of  the 
land  or  those  for  governing  the  nations,  provided  the 
law-makers  all  possess  an  adequate  knowledge  of  the 
nature  and  the  needs  of  the  ordinary  child.  I  care  not 
who  is  appointed  to  execute  the  laws,  provided  the 
executives  likewise  know  the  juvenile  life  and  are  ac- 
quainted with  its  inherent  demands  for  a  normal  de- 
velopment. Quite  as  strict  as  the  universal  require- 
ment that  each  child  attend  school  and  master  the 
rudiments  of  our  common  stock  of  knowledge,  should 
be  the  rule  that  every  ordinary  citizen  should  under- 
stand the  basic  principles  of  human  growth  and  devel- 
opment. The  franchise  should  not  be  a  privilege  of 
the  one  who  can  "read  and  write,"  but  "read  and 
right"  of  another  form  should  be  included;  that  is, 
ability  to  read  the  child  nature  and  to  right  through 
intelligent  effort  some  of  the  wrongs  which  society 


28      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

is  all  the  time  ignorantly  perpetrating  against   the 
young. 

To  know  the  child  is  to  love  him,  and  to  love  him 
is  to  wish  to  serve  and  direct  his  career.  With  every 
one  a  lover  of  little  children  the  majority  of  our  great- 
est problems  would  be  automatically  settled.  To 
know  the  common  child  is  to  be  tolerant  of  juvenile 
faults  and  failures,  is  to  see  each  one  as  a  growing 
and  learning  personality,  and  to  regard  every  normal 
young  human  being  as  a  participant  in  the  general  ex- 
perience of  the  race. 

PLAY  THE  FIRST  GREAT  ISSUE 

And,  now,  as  we  proceed  to  examine  the  general 
inherent  nature  of  childhood  in  thought  of  this  nature 
as  a  guide  to  human  progress  and  self-control,  we 
find  the  first  great  dominant  trait  to  be  the  disposi- 
tion for  play.  All  the  normal  children  of  every  tribe 
and  nation  under  the  sun  instinctively  long  for  play; 
and,  without  being  urged  to  do  so,  reach  out  for  the 
experiences  which  will  give  the  play  instinct  definite 
meaning  for  their  lives. 

There  will  be  a  great  gain  in  the  progress  of  society 
when  the  common  people  once  open  their  understand- 
ings to  the  fact  that  the  play  of  the  children  is  not 
fundamentally  for  the  sake  of  fun  and  amusement  but 
for  health,  and  morals  and  growth  in  character  de- 
velopment. During  the  earlier  years  play,  rightly  ex- 
ercised, is  by  far  the  greatest  instrument  for  the  edu- 
cation of  the  young. 

Under  the  discussion  of  democracy  we  shall  con- 


A  LITTLE  CHILD  SHALL  LEAD  THEM     29 

sider  the  meaning  of  juvenile  play  in  the  making  of  a 
substantial  society.  For  similar  reasons  the  great 
fundamental  inheritances  of  the  child  will  be  only 
lightly  outlined  here. 


INDUSTRY  AS   LIFE   AND  GROWTH 

Only  yesterday  I  witnessed  the  work  of  three  small 
boys  who  had  been  sweating  for  hours  while  excavat- 
ing two  tons  of  heavy  earth  in  order  to  make  them  a 
cave.  No  man  could  possibly  pursue  his  own  self- 
chosen  business  with  any  greater  delight  than  that 
which  gladdened  the  hearts  of  these  three  very  tired 
boys,  just  now  roofing  over  their  den. 

So  with  work  everywhere  and  of  all  ordinary  kinds. 
There  is  a  divine  creative  impulse  in  the  childish 
nature  which  yearns  for  its  performance.  Until  we 
adults,  misjudging  the  situation,  spoil  the  beautiful 
response  of  childhood  to  industry  by  calling  it  drudg- 
ery, by  pointing  to  its  mean  aspects,  by  making  it  an 
indication  of  low  rank,  and  the  like — until  we  disar- 
range nature's  delightful  attitude,  we  find  all  normal 
children  manifesting  a  keen  instinct  for  creative  and 
constructive  industry. 

There  is  no  important  industry  in  the  world — 
whether  it  be  producing,  manufacturing  or  distribut- 
ing some  portion  of  the  merchandise  of  general  trade 
and  commerce — but  that  the  heart  of  young  humanity 
may  be  made  glad  through  its  performance  under 
right  and  easily  arranged  conditions.  And  since  work 
is  one  of  the  greatest  racial  practices  and  is  an  expres- 


30      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

sion  of  one  of  the  oldest  racial  instincts,  is  it  not  plain 
that  the  child  which  is  denied  the  opportunities  of 
common  work  is  thereby  cheated  out  of  one  of  the 
most  important  racial  types  of  education? 


THE  RIGHT  TO  COMBAT 

A  third  mighty  universal  racial  instinct  is  that  for 
personal  and  group  combat.  The  very  essence  of 
warfare,  therefore,  is  hidden  in  the  eternal  inherent 
nature  of  man.  But  the  type  of  warfare  in  which  he 
shall  engage — whether  it  is  to  be  constructive  or  de- 
structive, whether  it  is  to  be  with  instruments  of  death 
and  destruction,  or  instruments  of  life  and  salvation — 
that  will  always  be  determined  by  the  way  in  which 
Man  directs  the  belligerent  instinct  in  his  youthful 
progeny.  It  is  interesting  to  notice  that  boys  in- 
stinctively fight  with  their  fists  and  with  heavier 
weapons,  while  girls  more  naturally  fight  with  words 
and  vent  their  feelings  with  such  instruments  as  quar- 
rels and  contentions.  But  it  is  all  a  matter  of  bel- 
ligerency. The  instinct  is  thoroughly  racial.  The 
tendency  to  fight  and  quarrel  is  animal-like  and  com- 
mon to  the  children  of  all  peoples. 

But,  of  all  the  great  racial  instincts  the  peoples  of 
the  world  have  seemed  to  understand  least  the  one 
here  under  discussion  may  be  cited.  The  intensive 
treatment  of  the  subject  is  therefore  reserved  for  a 
succeeding  chapter.  However,  it  seems  advisable  to 
reiterate  that  the  study  of  the  child  universal  as  herein 
repeatedly  urged,  forces  us  to  the  unavoidable  con- 


A  LITTI^E  CHILD  SHALL  LEAD  THEM     31 

elusion  that  Man's  first  duty  toward  his  own  nature 
is  not  to  try  to  change  that  persistent  inheritance  but 
to  learn  better  how  to  direct  it,  not  how  to  change 
himself  but  how  to  manage  himself.  It  is  almost 
futile  for  man  to  try  to  change  himself  into  another 
kind  of  creature  by  scientific  or  eugenic  methods.  It 
is  highly  possible  for  him  to  discover  by  scientific  and 
eugenic  self -study  a  progressive  series  of  new  ways 
for  making  a  better  use  of  the  superb  nature  which 
he  already  possesses. 


YOUTH  AND  THE  SOCIAL  HUNGER 

Nothing  could  be  more  fundamental  as  a  means  of 
insight  into  the  direction  of  human  society  than  for  the 
intelligent  people  of  all  lands  to  acquaint  themselves 
with  the  tremendous  social  instinct  which  dominates 
the  mind  and  heart  of  youth.  Here  we  find  for  the 
first  time  in  his  life  the  individual  ready  to  exchange 
every  other  consideration  for  an  opportunity  to  mingle 
with  his  age  and  kind,  to  know  their  desires  and  mo- 
tives and  to  gauge  their  opinions  of  one  another  and 
of  himself. 

Now,  while  the  heart  is  pulsating  with  adolescent 
love  it  is  the  supreme  opportunity  for  acquainting  the 
young  with  the  life  of  society  and  the  race,  and  for 
laying  a  firm  foundation  through  such  knowledge 
universally  acquired  for  the  upward  direction  of  hu- 
manity. Those  who  have  charge  of  the  momentous 
task  of  reconstruction  of  the  waste  of  the  great  war — 
which  must  require  years  for  completion — cannot  pos- 


32      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

sibly  find  a  more  reliable  key  to  progress  than  to  study 
carefully  the  normal  behaviour  and  the  possibilities  of 
social  re-direction  during  this  buoyant  age  of  love's 
young  dreams.  The  social  instinct,  or  the  love-mak- 
ing disposition,  of  youth  is  therefore  far  more  than  a 
mere  whim  to  be  brushed  aside  or  an  idiosyncrasy  to 
be  permitted  for  the  time  to  run  its  course  and  die  out. 
This  stirring  epoch  is  tremendously  potent  in  signifi- 
cance for  self -direction  and  for  solving  the  larger 
problems  of  social  guidance. 


OTHER  INSTINCTS  LISTED 

It  is  probable  that  the  contention  of  this  chapter  has 
been  made  clear  to  all,  whether  its  points  are  accept- 
able or  not.  To  restate  the  matter  in  a  sentence,  the 
universal  and  unchangeable  child  nature  is  the  best 
explanation  of  the  blundering  and  somewhat  inglori- 
ous past  of  mankind;  and,  rightly  studied  and  under- 
stood by  all,  it  becomes  the  most  reliable  key  to  his  fu- 
ture self-direction. 

If  time  and  space  warranted  us  in  doing  so  we 
should  consider  here  in  a  similar  brief  manner  as 
above  the  other  powerful  human  instincts — for  reli- 
gion, for  vocation,  for  marriage,  and  for  service. 
However,  all  these  matters  will  come  in  their  true 
relation  to  the  problems  of  reconstruction  of  human 
society,  to  be  discussed  later. 

And  now  it  seems  fitting  to  close  the  chapter  with 
a  beautiful  and  epoch-making  prophecy,  the  allegorical 
meaning  of  which  is,  in  this  troublesome  day  and  age, 


A  LITTLE  CHILD  SHALL  LEAD  THEM      33 

coming  to  pass  far  more  rapidly  than  some  would 
believe — 

"The  wolf  shall  dwell  with  the  lamb, 

The  leopard  shall  lie  down  with  the  kid. 

The  calf,  the  young  lion  and  the  fatling  together, 

And  a  Little  Child  shall  lead  them." 


Ill 

THE  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  MAN 

The  general-in-chief  of  the  American  army,  once 
a  Missouri  mule  driver;  the  President  of  the  Nation 
and  the  chief  international  interpreter  of  the  world 
war,  a  former  humble  schoolmaster;  the  Prime  Min- 
ister of  the  British  Empire  and  one  of  the  most  force- 
ful personalities  in  the  world,  a  Welsh  coal-miner;  the 
Generalissimo  of  all  the  allied  armies,  one  time  a  plain 
member  of  the  proletariat.  Thus  we  might  support 
by  a  long  line  of  evidence  the  theory  that  only  the 
Common  Man  may  become  the  truly  great  man. 

A    NEW    MASTER   APPEARING 

The  leading  nations  of  the  world  are  just  now 
entering  the  age  of  the  Great  Common  Man,  the  epoch 
of  discovery  of  the  brilliant  and  all-sufficient  qualities 
inherent  at  birth  in  all  normal  children  and  made  real 
and  highly  effective  through  well-balanced  develop- 
ment. Not  only  is  Common  Man  the  greatest  thing 
on  the  earth  to-day  but  there  is  also  nothing  greater 
needed  here  to  bring  about  the  realisation  of  the  fond- 
est dreams  of  achievement  of  which  the  human  mind 
is  capable.  Shattered  as  it  was  by  the  world  war  the 

34 


THE  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  MAN  35 

philosophy  of  the  superman  proved  to  be  only  a  hollow 
and  infamous  falsehood.  The  superman  fell  because 
there  was  really  nothing  within  of  the  sound  elements 
of  human  nature  to  support  him.  A  single  and  reliable 
test  of  any  plan  or  device  large  or  small  is  this :  Does 
it  fit  into  the  nature  and  requirements  of  ordinary 
humanity?  Likewise  must  any  philosophy  apply  to 
the  sturdy  and  ever- forceful  mid-stream  of  the  race. 
Supermanism  did  not. 

So,  there  is  a  new  Master  arising  in  the  world,  and 
he  is  to  be  recruited  numerously  from  the  ranks  of 
the  ordinary,  the  tremendously  prolific  mid-population. 
Just  as  the  superman  has  disappeared  in  a  terrible 
dramatic  wreck  of  matter  so  is  the  Common  Man  as- 
suming shape  out  of  a  vast  outburst  of  spiritual  ideals. 
The  divine  right  of  kings  is  already  a  sad  and  bitter 
memory,  the  divine  right  of  man  is  a  bright  and  lur- 
ing promise.  In  India,  once  upon  a  time,  it  was  an- 
nounced that  the  dreadful  man-eating  tiger  had  been 
slain,  whereupon  all  the  people  rushed  into  the  open 
and  shouted  for  joy.  At  the  beginning  of  the  Renais- 
sance the  word  went  abroad  that  the  devil  of  fear  and 
superstition  was  dead,  and  in  response  all  of  Enlight- 
ened Europe  hurried  forward  with  feverish  excite- 
ment to  enjoy  the  new  religious  and  intellectual  free- 
dom. And  now  the  devil  incarnate,  the  blood-eating 
superman  is  no  more,  and  the  rejoicings  of  all  the 
peoples  of  the  earth  are  at  hand.  The  celebration  of 
November  n,  1918  was  the  most  momentous  event 
of  the  kind  ever  known. 


36      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

A  NEW  CONCEPTION  OF  GENIUS 

But  the  failure  of  the  superman  and  the  discovery 
of  the  Common  Man  is  a  world  movement  with  which 
the  people  themselves  must  be  made  more  familiar  if 
the  best  fruitage  of  the  terrible  sacrifice  is  to  be  ex- 
pected. Among  other  things  there  must  certainly  be 
a  reconsideration  of  the  type  of  man  commonly  desig- 
nated as  the  genius.  The  Prussians  exalted  him 
almost  to  the  point  of  deification.  They  especially 
worshipped  those  in  the  places  of  power  and  authority ; 
whereas  these  should  all  be  regarded  as  public 
servants.  The  genius  is  not  greater  than  the  average 
individual,  he  is  simply  different.  He  participates  to 
a  less  degree  in  the  great  stream  of  racial  inheritance 
and  is  therefore  a  less  factor  in  the  perpetuity  of  the 
common  stock  of  humanity  than  is  the  average  man. 
The  genius  is  one-sided;  there  is  some  element  piled 
high  in  his  make-up  and  some  other  one  well-nigh 
omitted.  He  is  both  long  and  short. 

The  genius  so-called  is  born  only  occasionally,  and 
is  simply  an  odd  variant.  No  amount  of  scientific 
effort  or  social  propaganda  can  possibly  make  him  a 
normal  type.  He  is  so  one-sided  that  a  race  of  beings 
like  him  would  be  unthinkable  and  really  suicidal. 
Like  the  subnormal  type — which  is  never  a  matter  of 
special  alarm  to  society  because  of  lack  of  some  of 
the  fundamental  race  ingredients — the  genius  can 
never  perpetuate  his  kind  in  any  considerable  num- 
bers. The  world  was  created  to  fit  the  common  and 
to  defeat  the  uncommon. 

The  schools,  the  colleges,  the  nations  themselves, 


THE  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  MAN  37 

all,  must  cease  to  worship  the  genius,  for  such  is 
merely  supermanism.  They  may  revere  and  exalt  to 
the  highest  pinnacle  the  common  individual.  Down 
with  the  genius  as  a  master,  as  an  autocrat,  as  a  super- 
man. Give  him  his  valued  place  as  a  servant.  Make 
his  rare  ability  do  its  splendid  work  as  contributing  to 
the  general  progress.  Whenever  he  is  placed  on  a 
throne  or  in  supreme  and  autocratic  power  the  rights 
and  opportunities  of  the  masses  become  submerged. 


DIVINITY    IN    THE    COMMON 

It  is  fundamental  for  our  theory  of  the  reconstruc- 
tion of  society  that  the  element  of  divine  ability  be 
sought,  trained  and  put  into  service  in  the  case  of 
every  common  child.  Every  normal  child  has  in  his 
make-up  the  possibility  of  an  organised  and  created 
genius.  For  a  common  child  to  grow  up  in  the 
midst  of  ordinary  surroundings,  to  attend  a  common 
school  and  mingle  freely  with  all  classes  and  condi- 
tions of  young  humanity,  to  have  adequate  experience 
and  discipline  in  all  the  great  inherent  lines  of  en- 
deavour, as  listed  above;  and  finally  to  have  his  best 
talent  singled  out  as  an  instrument  of  vocational  em- 
ployment— verily,  here  is  the  thing  for  the  people  to 
exalt.  This  superb  yet  common,  divine  yet  human 
material,  organised  within  and  without,  until  it  shines 
brightly  with  a  light  of  its  own  creation — this  is  the 
charming  thing  to  which  the  attention  of  the  whole 
world  must  be  drawn  during  this,  the  latest  and  great- 
est renaissance  of  all  time. 

In  some  respects  the  one  who  polishes  my  shoes 


38      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

is  brighter  than  I  am.  The  ten-year-old  boy  out  yon- 
der flying  his  kite  could  put  me  to  shame  in  a  contest 
with  him  in  that  pastime.  The  eleven-year-old  girl 
over  the  way  with  her  beautiful  needle  work  is  my 
superior.  I  could  go  to  school  for  a  year  to  the  car- 
penter at  work  on  my  house  and  still  be  learning  some- 
thing from  him.  I  recognise  every  ordinary  person 
as  in  some  respects  my  superior  and  I  ask  only  for  a 
like  consideration  for  my  own  talents. 

If  I  had  a  school  of  one  thousand  boys  and  girls 
I  should  make  it  a  conspicuous  affair  that  every  one 
of  them  might  become  worthy  of  the  exalted  opinion 
of  all  the  others.  Under  my  plan  of  direction  every 
one  should  shine  in  a  light  of  his  own  and  yet  not 
obscure  the  light  of  any  of  the  others.  It  is  possible 
to  take  the  thousand-and-one  elements  of  ability  in- 
herent in  any  common  child  and  weave  these  into 
a  personality  which  is  not  quite  like  any  other  one. 
All  are  alike  in  general,  yet  every  one  is  different  in 
particular.  It  is  this  commonality  which  I  should 
exalt  in  order  to  fix  a  universal  tie  of  fellowship.  It 
is  this  difference  which  I  should  exalt  in  order  to  fix 
in  each  one  a  peculiar  mark  of  reverence  for  the 
others  to  observe  in  him  and  a  peculiar  sense  of  satis- 
faction for  himself. 

The  worship  of  the  genius  has  led  us  astray,  the 
worship  of  the  common  individual — awakened,  quick- 
ened, inspired  through  right  training — will  bring  the 
whole  world  back  to  its  senses  and  usher  in  the  mil- 
lennium. It  is  not,  therefore,  the  one-sided  "natural- 
born  genius"  which  must  be  depended  upon  to  lead 
the  race  out  of  darkness ;  but  the  many-sided,  naturally 


THE  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  MAN  39 

developed,  and  finally  differentiated  common  indi- 
vidual who  will  lead  the  way  onward  over  mountains 
of  difficulty. 

THE  NEW  SCHOOL 

The  successful  school  is  not  merely  one  where  les- 
sons are  well  recited  and  where  promotions  are  made  to 
the  next  higher  course.  It  is  not  a  place,  moreover, 
which  combines  these  traditional  processes  with  a  quan- 
tum of  training  in  the  so-called  practical  affair  of  life. 
The  real  school  is  one  where  all  these  matters  are 
attended  to  incidentally,  but  where  the  teacher  and 
the  taught  are  consciously  at  work  sifting  out  and 
organising  the  best  talent  of  every  individual  pupil, 
as  suggested  above.  The  true  school  is  a  finding  sys- 
tem. It  helps  all  to  find  the  peculiar  and  practical 
combination  of  abilities  in  themselves  and  at  the  same 
time  to  observe  and  recognise  this  exalted  worth  in  all. 

Any  form  of  individual  contest  in  the  serious  duties 
of  the  school  is  at  once  an  acknowledgment  of  its 
fundamental  weakness.  No  fair  and  even  contest  be- 
tween any  two  is  possible  from  the  simple  fact  that 
no  two  are  alike.  Likewise  here  no  individual  con- 
test for  prizes  or  honours  is  permissible  because  of 
its  emphasis  upon  the  weakness  of  the  loser  and  its 
humiliation  of  him,  and  because  of  the  violence  done 
to  the  mutual  good-will  of  the  pupils.  The  school 
contest  is  one  of  the  roots  of  the  recent  world  catas- 
trophe. 

The  contest,  the  sharp  individual  competition  in  all 
the  serious  phases  of  our  general  welfare,  must  be  done 
away  with.  It  exalts  the  unusual  genius  too  much ;  it 


40      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

over-emphasises  artificial  and  adventitious  talents,  it 
is  on  a  par  with  the  supermanism  which  has  thrown 
the  world  into  chaos.  It  is  a  pitiable  situation,  to 
witness  a  body  of  intelligent  persons  urging  an  indi- 
vidual child  to  struggle  in  a  contest  to  outdo  one  of 
his  innocent  fellows.  It  is  even  more  pathetic  to  see 
persons  of  reputed  intelligence  engaged  in  promoting 
a  contest  to  determine  which  mother  has  the  most 
"perfect"  child.  The  little  one  thus  favoured  is  usu- 
ally a  child  which  happened  to  combine  in  his  inherent 
make-up  a  set  of  such-and-such  points,  and  no  amount 
of  parental  trial  and  training  will  make  more  than  one 
out  of  every  five  hundred  like  him. 

God  made  all  the  normal  children  potentially  per- 
fect. His  plan  made  it  possible  for  all  to  show  forth 
a  form  of  supreme  beauty.  When  we  learn  how  to 
look  into  the  common  yet  divine  infantile  nature  and 
see  there  the  many  latent  talents  and  possibilities  of 
accomplishment,  we  shall  be  so  inspired  at  the  sight  of 
any  ordinary  child  that  we  shall  not  think  of  contests 
or  odious  comparisons. 

A  CHANGE  OF  ATTITUDE 

Our  idea  here  must  be  made  clear  and  emphatic, 
since  we  are  attempting  to  defend  the  common  in- 
herent nature  of  man  as  the  only  reliable  guide  to  the 
future  reconstruction  of  society  and  the  steady  upward 
trend  of  the  race.  To  reiterate:  The  contest,  or 
competition  plan  of  getting  things  done  in  the  school 
or  in  business  centres  the  attention  too  much  upon  hu- 
man weakness  and  detracts  the  attention  too  much 


THE  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  MAN  41 

from  the  splendid  elements  of  human  strength  to  be 
found  in  all.  The  contestant  studies  the  weak  side  of 
his  opponent  and  generalises  upon  that.  He  at  the 
same  time  acquires  an  over-exalted  or  a  perverted 
opinion  of  his  own  worth. 

What  we  must  work  for,  therefore,  is  a  radical 
change  of  attitude  toward  the  ordinary  plodder  along 
life's  upward  way.  With  knowledge  of  the  fact  that 
every  normal  person  inherits  in  some  measure  all  the 
racial  qualities,  and  of  the  fact  that  this  general  body 
of  inherited  forces  is  really  what  counts  most  in  keep- 
ing the  race  alive  and  going  steadily  upward,  it  be- 
comes a  comparatively  easy  matter  to  observe  at  a 
glance  the  splendid  latent  values  in  the  common  child 
or  young  person.  Thus  each  one  becomes  an  inter- 
ested on-kx)ker  at  the  side  of  the  young  struggling  for 
a  wider  definition  of  his  life.  Thus  each  one  becomes 
a  sympathetic  monitor  for  the  procession  of  young 
humanity  passing  on  its  way  toward  a  realisation  of 
its  destiny. 

Wherefore,  the  divine  right  of  kings  will  give 
place  to  the  divine  right  of  man.  All  normal  per- 
sons shall  enjoy  the  respect  and  reverence  due  them 
because  of  their  fundamental  place  in  the  great  life 
of  the  race.  All  shall  be  seen  as  struggling  hope- 
fully on  to  an  ever  higher  perfection  guaranteed  them 
through  the  divine  heritage  which  they  embody.  The 
prized  things  of  life  will  be  centred  around  this  built- 
up  and  exalted  commonality  of  human  kind  whose  seed 
has  always  inherited  the  earth.  Being  far-and-away  in 
the  majority,  this  Common  Man — attentive  to  his  own 
nature,  and  directing  his  effort  toward  the  perpetuity 


42      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

of  his  natural  interests — his  will,  his  purpose  must 
always  prevail;  and  a  true  democracy  will  be  the  fine 
fruition  of  his  career  on  the  earth.  Under  such  a 
direction  of  his  thought  and  action,  the  common  mind 
of  man  will  continue  to  discover  within  himself  an 
ever-increasing  series  of  splendid  achievements.  In- 
deed, if  we  count  the  brain  cells  in  an  ordinary  indi- 
vidual and  measure  the  lightning  effects  of  his  intri- 
cate nervous  system  we  are  led  to  believe  that  he  was 
created  for  eternity  rather  than  for  time.  As  he  con- 
tinues to  delve  more  and  more  into  the  hidden  depths 
and  beauties  of  his  own  nature  this  Great  Commoner 
will  carry  his  achievements  on  from  glory  unto 
glory. 

What  greater  thing  should  the  Lord  of  All  Creation 
have  placed  here  upon  the  earth?  What  finer  exam- 
ple of  his  infinitude  is  desired  than  that  of  ordinary 
human  beings  developed  to  that  point  of  excellence 
and  charm  which  the  masses  of  normal  children  are 
now  known  to  be  capable  of  reaching  under  wise  and 
sympathetic  direction?  All  hail,  The  Great  Common 
Man,  the  greatest  discovery  of  the  age,  the  world's 
second  Redeemer! 


IV 

CREATIVE  DEMOCRACY 

If  there  is  ever  to  be  any  such  thing  in  the  world 
as  a  real,  universal  democracy  man  will  evolve  it  out 
of  his  own  nature.  Democracy  cannot  be  taught. 
You  cannot  tell  a  man  what  it  is  any  more  than  you 
can  tell  a  blind  man  what  blue  looks  like.  Men  can 
never  understand  the  meaning  of  democracy  from 
studying  books  or  listening  to  lectures.  This  knowl- 
edge can  come  only  from  experience.  They  must  live 
democracy  from  childhood  and  thus  produce  it  in  a 
living  form. 

A  DEMOCRACY  OF  EXPERIENCE 

The  work  of  the  great  industrial  world,  the  develop- 
ment and  application  to  society  of  the  vast  material 
resources  of  the  earth,  will  doubtless  always  occupy 
the  time  of  the  mighty  masses  of  mankind.  And  yet, 
out  of  these  masses  the  knowledge  and  understanding 
of  free  self-government  must  come.  Too  long  it  has 
been  falsely  assumed  that  a  free  government  can  be 
handed  down  to  the  masses  by  the  kings  or  rulers  or 
intellectual  classes.  The  origin  of  a  free  administra- 
tion of  authority  must  travel  up  from  the  great  com- 
mon throng  and  never  down  to  them. 

43 


44      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

But  the  typical  individual  in  the  vast  central  stream 
of  humanity  will  always  be  too  busy  to  stop  for  a 
lengthy  and  fixed  course  of  instruction  in  govern- 
mental affairs,  and  need  not  do  so.  He  can  learn 
the  meaning  of  democracy  best  by  producing  it.  He 
must  literally  grow  his  own  free  government  by  liv- 
ing from  childhood  the  deep  and  fundamental  experi- 
ences of  the  race.  The  only  way  to  know  how  paw- 
paws taste  is  to  taste  paw-paws ;  the  only  way  to  know 
how  camphor  smells  is  to  smell  camphor ;  the  only  way 
to  know  how  toothache  hurts  is  to  have  toothache. 
To  know  these  things  is  to  live  them.  Wherefore, 
the  only  way  to  know  what  democracy  is  like  is  to 
live  democracy.  But  to  live  any  and  all  of  these 
things  is  to  produce  them,  to  create  them,  to  build 
them  into  one's  experience  and  usable  knowledge  of 
what  they  are  like. 

A  REVISED   TRADITION 

I  have  no  faith  in  a  democracy  that  is  merely  on 
paper.  I  have  no  faith  in  the  permanence  of  a  de- 
mocracy based  upon  a  mere  legislative  decision  per- 
haps forced  upon  some  legislative  body.  Man  will 
have  a  free  government  just  as  soon  as  he  creates  it 
through  his  personal,  living  experience.  The  real 
source  of  righteous  rulership  is  in  the  inherent  race 
life.  The  power  and  authority  of  the  self -direction  of 
the  race  can  only  take  true  form  in  a  living  expres- 
sion on  the  part  of  the  masses  of  what  has  been  stored 
up  by  Providence  in  the  common  human  frame. 

"Where  shall  wisdom  be  found  and  where  is  the 


CREATIVE  DEMOCRACY  45 

place  of  understanding?"  It  is  the  thesis  of  this  text 
that  the  "fear  of  the  Lord"  which  is  the  "beginning 
of  wisdom"  is  to  be  found  in  the  storehouse  of  energy 
resident  in  the  Lord's  highest  anointed  in  all  the  earth, 
namely,  Common  Man.  The  essence  of  righteous 
self-government  is  latent  there.  The  Great  Book  of 
Life  here  is  the  rich  heritage  within  the  unsullied  in- 
fant nature.  It  is  a  mistake  to  think  that  nations 
can  acquire  a  democracy  directly  by  fighting  for  it. 
What  they  get  by  fighting — besides  the  vast  wastage 
of  human  blood  and  material — is  disillusionment.  As 
they  fight  on  till  one  side  gradually  becomes  too  weak 
to  struggle  longer,  they  both  continue  to  define  them- 
selves and  to  re-discover  the  real  issues.  It  is  a  process 
of  slow  attrition  of  the  men  and  materials  and  of  slow 
transformation  of  the  ideals  of  both  belligerent 
powers.  In  the  usual  case,  the  conqueror  leads  and 
the  vanquished  follows  back  to  the  people  and  even 
to  the  proletariat  for  a  sanction  of  the  new  rulership 
to  be  established.  That  is  precisely  what  has  followed 
in  the  inglorious  world  conflict.  Back  to  the  heart  of 
common  humanity  they  have  been  forced  to  go  in 
order  to  secure  a  basis  for  the  peace  to  follow. 


STUDY  INHERENT  CAUSES 

Not  by  power  of  mountainous  war  instruments,  but 
by  the  subtle  might  of  a  vast  spiritual  force,  is  the 
earth  to  be  governed ;  that  is  the  disillusionment  which 
has  come  out  of  the  war.  But  even  here  we  are  apt 
to  study  symptoms  and  treat  symptoms  when  we  ought 
to  be  studying  causes.  The  cause  of  the  bloody  catas- 


46      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

trophe  was  not  fundamentally  preparedness  and  bold 
aggression  on  the  part  of  any  government.  The 
deeper  cause  of  the  war  was  an  unsatisfied  human 
nature.  The  great  divine  inheritance  in  Common 
Man  was  not  getting  its  own.  Coarse,  material  means 
were  being  set  up  for  spiritual  ends.  The  vast  in- 
dustry of  the  world,  which  should  have  been  so  ad- 
justed to  mankind  as  to  ripen  and  sweeten  his  nature 
through  its  achievements — this  was  being  subordinated 
to  the  indulgence  of  his  baser  instincts  and  passions. 
So,  there  is  danger  here  that  we  observe  too  exclu- 
sively the  noise  and  clamour  and  confusion  among  the 
newly  liberated  peoples  and  attend  not  enough  to  the 
inherent  and  eternal  source  of  the  true  re-organisation 
of  society  to  be  found  within.  The  definite  outlines 
of  this  inner  guide  and  sanction  of  free  government 
will  be  presently  described. 

ALL  ONE  PEOPLE 

Another  aspect  of  the  disillusionment  which  has 
resulted  from  the  gigantic  struggle  is  the  discovery  of 
the  commonality  of  certain  much  heralded  human 
qualities.  For  example,  it  was  thought  that  one  na- 
tion was  heroic  and  another  cowardly.  But  that 
proved  to  be  a  traditional  falsehood.  White  men, 
black  men,  yellow  men,  red  men,  round  heads,  square 
heads,  long  heads,  short  heads — all  these  have  fought 
and  died  heroically  side  by  side.  All  these  have 
rushed  voluntarily  into  the  very  jaws  of  death. 
Heroism  is  a  great  racial  trait,  and  not  merely  the 
prized  virtue  of  certain  nations  or  classes. 


CREATIVE  DEMOCRACY  47 

Indeed,  from  the  start  to  the  finish  the  struggle  was 
simply  a  gigantic  family  affair.  The  stronger  and 
larger  European  nations  involved — Great  Britain, 
Germany,  France  and  Italy — these  are  all  made  up 
chiefly  of  a  mixture  of  the  three  great  Caucasian  ele- 
ments :  The  Nordic,  the  Alpine  and  the  Mediterranean. 
The  radical  difference  in  the  conduct  of  the  war  on 
the  two  opposing  sides  was  not  a  difference  in  blood 
or  race  but  a  difference  in  the  social  inheritance  and 
ideals.  It  was  a  tragic  disagreement  as  to  the  inter- 
pretation of  man,  which  grew  fundamentally  out  of  the 
lack  of  any  systematic  attempt  to  inquire  into  his 
eternal  inheritance  for  wisdom  and  divine  guidance. 

TRAGIC  FALSEHOOD 

Now  we  begin  to  see  that  the  world  crisis  through 
which  we  have  recently  been  passing  is  traceable  to 
a  few  traditional  and  mammoth  falsehoods  as  to  the 
general  inherent  quality  of  the  race  life.  And  the 
first  of  these  was  the  false  assumption  of  racial  and 
individual  degeneracy.  As  explained  above,  we  were 
at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  obsessed  with  the  idea  that 
our  young  manhood  was  degenerate,  but  subsequent 
events  proved  that  it  was  merely  under-developed  and 
potentially  superb.  But  the  classical  example  of  the 
assumed  degeneracy  of  a  whole  nation  was  the  civil- 
ised world's  opinion,  at  the  beginning  of  the  conflict, 
of  the  French  people.  "Thoroughly  run  down,"  de- 
pleted," "dwindled  out,"  "hopelessly  degenerate" — 
these  were  the  epithets  applied  to  them  from  every 
quarter.  It  was  all  an  international  lie.  The  strug- 


48      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

gle  forced  the  French  people  back  to  their  own  re- 
sources of  strength,  of  intelligence  and  of  endurance. 
The  result  was  miraculous.  "A  superb,  brilliant  race 
of  people,  unsurpassed  by  any  of  the  nations  of  the 
globe."  Such  is  now  the  common  verdict. 

And  this  absolute  reversal  of  decision  as  to  the 
sterling  qualities  of  the  French  people  tends  to  pile 
up  argument  for  the  main  thesis  of  this  dissertation; 
—namely,  that  the  entire  human  family  was  never  poten- 
tially greater  than  it  is  to-day;  that  all  the  valued  in- 
stincts and  attributes  of  the  race  remain  within  as  a 
hidden  inheritance,  no  matter  how  much  one  genera- 
tion may  blunder;  that  this  persistent  heritage  is  so 
profound  and  rich  and  resourceful  as  to  furnish  all 
the  necessary  foundation  for  a  far  higher  state  of 
civilisation  than  the  world  has  ever  yet  known;  that 
the  essential  elements  of  this  relatively  permanent 
human  nature  are  so  common  to  all  as  to  furnish  a 
deep  sanction  for  an  enduring  racial  unity  of  action 
and  government;  that,  finally,  the  only  reliable  and 
inspiring  guidance  which  man  can  possibly  find  for  his 
peaceful  contentment  here  on  the  earth  is  this  age-old, 
God-given  nature  within  his  own  frame. 

BACK  TO  THE  CHILD 

And  now  we  must  come  back  more  directly  to  our 
creative  democracy,  to  the  enticing  highway  over 
which  all  mankind  must  travel  in  order  to  create  his 
own  free  self-government.  Experience  is  the  great 
Book  of  Life  here,  and  experience  which  must  first 
be  characterised  as  racial.  Provide  that  each  and  all, 


CREATIVE  DEMOCRACY  49 

during  the  formative  years  of  childhood  and  youth 
may  indulge  through  a  reasonable  course  of  training 
the  great  racial  elements  within  their  own  natures  and 
you  will  have  a  striking  example  of  good  government 
in  the  making.  Man  will  never  perfect  himself.  His 
racial  inheritance  is  too  nearly  infinite  in  possibilities, 
but  he  will  ever  continue  to  perfect  himself.  Where- 
fore, the  greatest  possible  freedom  that  can  ever  be 
accorded  to  the  individual  is  not  merely  lack  of  re- 
straint by  law  and  non-interference  with  his  posses- 
sions, but  freedom  to  work  out  his  own  destiny, 
guided  by  the  inner  sanctions  of  his  own  personal  ex- 
periences as  they  come  to  him  through  a  healthy  and 
normal  life. 

Back  to  the  little  child  is  therefore  our  watchword. 
Sit  at  the  feet  of  this  charming  piece  of  eternal  in- 
fantine divinity.  Find  out  how  he  grows  and  knows 
and  continues  to  define  his  life  and  enlarge  his  under- 
standing through  the  normal  indulgence  of  his  in- 
stincts and  desires.  In  its  general  outlines  all  this  en- 
ticing programme  of  growth  and  unfoldment  may  be- 
come practically  the  same  the  world  round.  The 
common  child,  his  universal  nature,  can  and  should 
define  the  course  which  his  proper  training  is  to  take. 
We  must  reverse  the  ideal  that  the  child  is  to  be 
trained  for  society  or  for  the  state  and  hold  that  these 
things  must  be  made  to  fit  him. 

A  COMMUNITY  OF  EXPERIENCE 

The  idea  here  is  that  of  a  possible  commonality  of 
experience,  and  that  based  on  the  commonality  of 


SO      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

inherent  qualities.  Now,  this  procedure  becomes  at 
once  a  distinctively  intimate  and  unifying  one.  The 
man  whom  I  played  with  during  childhood,  fought 
with  during  boyhood,  romanced  with  during  youth, 
toiled  with  during  early  manhood,  fraternised  with 
during  maturity — it  matters  little  as  to  his  race  or 
blood  or  colour — this  man  is  inviolably  bound  to  me, 
his  heart  to  my  heart ;  and  no  human  force  can  widely 
dissever  us.  This  commonality  of  experience  is  the 
only  known  unbreakable  tie  of  mutual  regard  and 
peaceable  co-partnership.  And,  applied  upon  a  larger 
scale,  it  is  the  one  great  promise  of  bringing  order 
out  of  the  chaos  into  which  man  has  fallen. 

But  to  urge  that  the  common  child  must  reproduce 
the  fundamental  elements  of  the  life  of  the  race  as  he 
proceeds  along  his  individual  way  is  not  to  imply  that 
he  is  to  undergo  the  sum  total  of  all  human  experience. 
Under  our  broad  definition  here  it  simply  means  that 
the  common  child  must  play,  under  wise  guidance, 
with  other  common  children;  that  he  must  work  inti- 
mately at  their  side;  that  he  must  fight  (construc- 
tively) with  his  young  mates;  that  he  must  socialise 
himself  within  the  ordinary  group;  that  he  must  wor- 
ship in  the  freedom  of  the  open  court ;  and  so  on. 

The  eight  seemingly  greatest  instinctive  dispositions 
named  above  as  most  significant  for  the  training,  the 
guidance  and  the  social  direction  of  the  race — and  as 
found  to  be  present  in  the  inheritance  of  all  the  young 
— are  these : — 

I.  Play,  the  instinct  for  exuberant  physical  orienta- 
tion. 


CREATIVE  DEMOCRACY  51 

2.  Work,   the   instinct   for   reconstruction   of   the 
material  world. 

3.  Fighting,  the  instinct  for  overcoming  the  hin- 
drances in  individual  progress. 

4.  Sociability,    the    instinct    for    an    intimate   ac- 
quaintance with  human  behaviour. 

5.  Religion,  the  instinct  for  reaching  out  into  the 
unknown  for  a  spiritual  definition  of  life. 

6.  Vocation,   the   instinct    for   bread-winning   and 
physical  self-support. 

7.  Marriage,  the  instinct  for  sexual  mating  and  for 
the  rearing  of  a  family. 

8.  Service,  the  instinct  for  rendering  a  return  to 
those  who  have  sustained  one  during  his  period  of 
helplessness  or  dependency. 

Train  all  ordinary,  normal  children  and  young  peo- 
ple in  connection  with  a  full  variety  of  other  young 
personalities,  through  all  the  epochs  of  the  foregoing 
schedule  of  human  instincts  and  you  get  as  a  result  a 
thorough  consciousness  of  kind  and  a  deep  and  last- 
ing sympathy  among  all. 

THE  MELTING  POT 

The  public  school  is  our  only  really  democratic  in- 
stitution in  service  of  all  the  young.  And,  as  an  or- 
ganisation supplementary  to  this,  the  Boy  Scout  move- 
ment is  without  a  peer.  It  is  our  magical  melting  pot. 
We  may  take  the  infant  children  of  French,  and  Ger- 
man, and  Slavs,  and  Italian  and  Japanese,  and  what 
not.  By  giving  them  all  the  same  general  course  of 
training  and  interchange  of  experience,  as  indicated  in 


52      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

the  outline  above,  we  most  certainly  put  them  through 
the  wonderful  melting  pot.  We  thus  give  them  a  reli- 
able basis  of  mutual  understanding  and  good-will,  a 
bond  of  fellowship  that  will  tie  them  together  during 
any  or  all  the  great  experiences  or  crises  that  may  fall 
to  the  lot  of  a  people.  Matured  under  this  heaven- 
ordained  programme  of  development,  the  great  mass 
of  mankind  will  laugh  and  labour  and  love  and  look 
up  together  in  reasonable  harmony  during  the  entire 
period  of  their  existence. 

So  man,  rightly  understood  in  the  future,  will  be- 
gin from  infancy  to  produce  his  own  democracy.  He 
will  grow  it  as  he  goes  along  and  know  it  as  a 
familiar  song.  And  this  will  some  day  be  considered 
individual  man's  great  achievement :  To  live  normally 
and  progressively  through  all  the  racial  epochs,  to 
find  thus  the  soul  of  humanity  through  the  expres- 
sion of  his  own  inherent  divinity.  And,  finally,  the 
so-called  serious  affairs  of  ordinary  human  existence 
will  all  shape  themselves  to  fit  into  this  eternal  order  of 
events. 


THE  REGENERATION  OF  BUSINESS 

A  new  birth  is  certainly  coming  to  the  business  of 
the  world.  Commercial  enterprise  is  awaking  to  an 
ideal  of  service  of  humanity.  Man  is  the  new  meas- 
ure of  all  things  of  worth,  including  business.  The 
line  of  business  which  indulges,  satisfies,  promotes  the 
welfare  of  Common  Man,  that  is  the  only  kind  of 
enterprise  which  is  going  to  stand  the  test  of  this  new 
age.  Just  as  the  Kaiser — selfish,  arrogant  wielder  of 
power  for  his  own  interest — was  compelled  to  abdi- 
cate and  flee,  so  the  big  trust  organisation,  conducting 
business  for  the  mere  selfish  purpose  of  amassing 
wealth,  must  abdicate  its  throne  in  favour  of  those 
who  would  deal  directly  with  the  people  in  commerce 
and  trade. 

A   NEW   STANDARD  OF  WEALTH 

The  real  wealth  of  society  is  men  and  women  and 
children;  the  riches  stored  up  in  their  characters.  If 
I  were  asked  to  rate  a  community  commercially  I 
should  determine  at  once  as  to  the  character,  the  con- 
tentment, the  well-being  of  the  common  residents 
thereof.  If  these  measured  up  to  a  high  standard  I 
should  report  a  wealthy  community.  If  not — even 

53 


54      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

though  the  banks  were  running  over  with  money, — I 
should  report  poverty. 

During  a  recent  visit  of  a  week  in  "one  of  the  coun- 
try's greatest  and  wealthiest  manufacturing  centres," 
I  found  the  following: — 

1.  Bank  clearings  the  highest  on  record. 

2.  Groups  of  big,  high-priced  commercial  establish- 
ments. 

3.  Three  hundred  fifty-seven  saloons. 

4.  A  billionaire  brewery  in  the  centre  of  all. 

5.  A  city  government  which  helped  the  underworld 
in  its  corrupt  practices. 

6.  More  than  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  the  people  liv- 
ing in  a  form  of  degradation  and  industrial  slavery. 

Now,  this  city  should  be  characterised  about  as  fol- 
lows :  "The  most  conspicuous  place  in  the  country  for 
robbing,  depraving  and  subordinating  Common  Man 
with  the  help  of  a  corrupt  form  of  local  government — 
a  place  of  extreme  poverty."  The  long  rows  of  shacks 
and  hovels  massed  close  together,  the  cashing  of  the 
pay  check  of  the  typical  employe  of  the  factories  in 
the  saloons  and  by  the  saloon  keeper  in  the  bank,  the 
fining  of  scarlet  women  by  the  police  without  the 
form  of  a  trial,  the  slugging  of  the  few  courageous 
reformers  who  strove  for  better  things,  the  garbled 
and  doctored  public  reports  to  show  the  city's  "great 
commercial  prosperity,"  the  tentacles  of  the  slimy 
saloon  reaching  into  every  institution  of  the  commun- 
ity— these  were  the  real  and  undeniable  evidences  of 
the  pathetic  poverty  of  this  "big,  rich  city."  The  en- 
tire polluted  situation  was  found  under  cover  to  be 
a  scandal  on  human  society. 


THE  REGENERATION  OF  BUSINESS      55 

CHARACTER  CREATES  WEALTH 

The  corruption  of  a  community  as  outlined  above 
grows  out  of  a  perversion  of  the  idea  of  wealth,  which 
is  always  a  product  of  character,  and  never  the  re- 
verse. True  character,  man,  wholesomely  and  right- 
eously matured,  is  the  only  creator  of  wealth.  Money, 
material  riches,  has  never  been  known  to  create  char- 
acter. The  time  is  slowly  approaching  when  a  test 
of  the  value  of  material  goods  will  result  from  an 
examination  of  the  character  of  their  possessor.  As 
a  so-called  war  measure  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment caught  up  the  idea  of  the  true  function  of 
business  as  being  human  service,  and  gave  it  a  com- 
mendable start.  Now  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  people 
themselves  will  continue  the  practice  through  channels 
of  authority  wholly  their  own.  During  the  period  of 
the  war  the  Government  has  practically  addressed 
business  everywhere,  thus — 

"Come  in  and  be  measured  in  terms  of  your  service 
to  man.  Are  you  in  an  essential  business?  Does 
your  manufacturing,  trading,  distributing  of  goods 
contribute  something  to  the  common  human  need  in 
this  time  of  strain  and  trial?  If  you  cannot  show 
a  service,  then  close  down  and  get  into  something 
that  helps.  Free  your  employes  in  order  that  they, 
too,  may  go  into  a  form  of  employment  that  will  help 
win  the  war  for  humanity." 

Now,  the  fore-going  re-direction  and  re-adjustment 
of  our  commercial  affairs  was  the  most  sensational, 
the  most  revolutionary  change  that  the  business  of 
any  country  has  ever  known.  And  the  question  of 


56      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

the  permanence  of  this  new  ideal  is  to  be  one  of 
the  mightiest  problems  of  reconstruction  for  the  sig- 
nificant after-war  period. 

Business  which  is  permitted  to  run  for  its  own 
sake  and  for  mere  amassing  of  wealth  is  always  in- 
clined to  exploit  and  prey  upon  human  well-being.  It 
is  the  most  sinister  and  the  most  dangerous  form  of 
Prussianism  among  us.  It  lines  up  stealthily  with 
the  devilish  purposes  of  supermanism.  There  is  most 
certainly  coming  to  this  fair  country  of  ours  a  com- 
plete overthrow  of  every  form  of  business  exploita- 
tion of  humanity,  as  the  present  generation  will  wit- 
ness. 

MANUFACTURING  MEN 

The  first  and  finest  product  of  the  new,  modern  in- 
dustrial plant  will  be  men.  Does  it  turn  out  and  use 
in  its  business  a  superb  type  of  human  personality? 
Are  its  employes  happy,  eager  to  do  their  best,  ac- 
tively loyal  to  the  plant,  the  community  and  the  gov- 
ernment? Are  their  families  well  housed,  well  fed 
and  well  schooled?  The  fore-going  are  the  questions 
which  the  modern  factory  inspector  should  ask  before 
he  goes  further  into  the  business  methods  of  any 
concern.  Humanity  first,  must  be  the  motto.  And  if 
the  establishment  fails  in  that,  it  fails  in  all. 

If  the  big  business  institution  is  to  be  considered 
first  of  all  as  a  place  where  men  are  created  through 
fine  adjustment  to  work  and  a  happy  adjustment  to 
society,  then,  tke  most  successful  manager  of  an  in- 
dustrial 'or  commercial  establishment  must  be  not 
merely  a  person  who  gets  the  biggest  money  return 


THE  REGENERATION  OF  BUSINESS      57 

out  of  the  business.  He  must  be  one  who  can  get 
the  maximum  of  growth,  of  adjustment,  of  content- 
ment out  of  the  employes  engaged  under  him. 

Henry  Ford  was  right  when  he  doubled  the  wages 
of  common  labourers  in  order  that  they  might  have 
enough  to  live  on  and  then  required  that  they  live 
as  real  men.  Crude  foreigners  and  all,  speaking  a 
score  or  more  of  languages,  were  brought  into  the 
plant  and  taught  to  speak  their  first  English  sentences 
as  they  repeatedly  affirmed  substantially  this — 

"I  am  a  good  American.  I  will  live  a  clean,  honest 
life.  I  will  always  help  the  other  fellow.  I  will 
work  hard,  take  care  of  my  health,  practise  thrift, 
abstain  from  dissipation,  deal  honestly  with  all  and 
live  as  best  I  can  in  complete  harmony  and  good-will 
with  mankind." 

It  was  an  epoch-making  affair  this  new  treatment 
of  the  employe,  and  it  constitutes  a  full  explanation 
of  why  a  great  city  literally  travelled  out  over  the 
open  prairie  in  order  to  cluster  about  the  life  of  a 
magnanimous  personality.  The  world  of  affairs  will 
learn  more  and  more  about  this  masterpiece  of  busi- 
ness methods  as  society  continues  with  the  post-war 
transformation  of  herself. 


LOYALTY  OF  BUSINESS 

Here,  then,  is  a  new  kind  of  patriotism,  of  which 
big  business  is  getting  a  fair  glimpse.  It  is  loyalty  to 
Man.  It  is  a  system  of  dealing  fairly  and  construc- 
tively first  with  the  divine  right  of  the  employe  to 
a  happy  welfare.  It  is  a  disposition  to  recognise  the 


58      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

supreme  greatness  and  significance  of  the  eternal  com- 
mon human  inheritance  and  of  its  right  to  function 
in  normal  ways  during  the  life  of  the  individual. 

"To  thine  own  self  be  true,  and  it  shall  follow  as 
the  night  the  day  thou  canst  not  then  be  false  to  any 
man."  This  Shakespearian  maxim  now  appears  in 
a  new  aspect :  Be  true  to  the  common  God-given  nature 
of  Man,  in  which  every  normal  person  participates. 
And  this  finally  appears  as  a  form  of  loyalty  to  the 
inherent  soundness  of  the  race  as  well  as  an  implied 
form  of  constructive  loyalty  to  any  righteous  govern- 
ment under  which  one  may  live. 

As  has  been  proved  time  and  again,  big  business  or 
little  business  may  prosper  if  established  on  the  prin- 
ciple of  management  outlined  above.  To  be  first  true 
and  loyal  to  Man  is  the  best  way  to  insure  a  fair  re- 
turn on  one's  investment.  The  government  has  not 
demanded  all  the  profits  of  business  but  it  has  simply 
insisted  on  a  fair  division  of  these  returns  as  a  neces- 
sary means  of  serving  humanity  during  the  period  of 
the  war.  But,  why  is  humanity  to  be  of  any  less 
consequence  to  business  after  the  war,  may  we  ask? 


THE  NEW   CHAMBER  OF  COMMERCE 

There  is  a  new  business  man's  organisation  taking 
definite  form  in  some  of  our  most  progressive  cities. 
And,  like  the  regenerated  commercial  enterprise  de- 
scribed above,  it,  too,  is  adopting  "Humanity  first"  as 
its  watchword.  The  substance  of  its  vision  is  this: 
The  right  way  to  increase  the  volume  of  legitimate 
trade  of  a  city  is  to  provide  for  the  common  welfare. 


THE  REGENERATION  OF  BUSINESS      59 

A  clean,  rightly  safe-guarded  common  people  in  any 
city  is  the  only  substantial  assurance  of  that  com- 
munity's permanent  prosperity.  The  complete  physi- 
cal care-taking,  moral  defence  and  educational  direc- 
tion of  the  young  of  a  city  is  its  greatest  guarantor  of 
the  business  and  thrift  of  society. 

Spurred  on  and  inspired  by  this  new  vision  of  a 
city's  true  prosperity,  the  modern,  awakened  chamber 
of  commerce  is  now  undertaking  not  a  few  things 
strange  and  well-nigh  startling  for  this  age.  Here 
and  there  I  find  the  old  fashioned  "commercial  club" 
now  sitting  weekly  as  a  deliberative  counsellor  of 
human  welfare.  I  find  it  calling  a  long  list  of  experts 
to  come  before  it  with  plans  for  human  betterment, 
better  health,  better  housing,  better  wages,  better 
moral  safe-guards.  I  find  it  listening  eagerly  to  plans 
for  juvenile  improvement — for  a  defence  against  child- 
labour  exploitation;  for  a  defence  of  the  moral  dis- 
traction and  dissipation  of  the  young;  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  play-grounds,  social  centres,  beneficent 
vocational  employment  agencies  and  various  home- 
helping  devices,  all  for  the  children.  I  see  the  com- 
mercial clubs  of  nearly  one  hundred  municipalities 
actively  engaged  for  a  year  in  promoting  definite  plans 
for  making  their  respective  cities  the  best  place  in  the 
commonwealth  in  which  to  bring  up  a  family  of  chil- 
dren. 

THE  DAWN  IS  BREAKING 

In  short,  we  find  that  the  greatest  business  enter- 
prise in  the  world  to-day  is  the  reconstruction  of  busi- 
ness itself,  so  as  to  make  it  conform  to  the  eternal  na- 


60      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

ture  and  the  inherent  requirements  of  a  re-discovered 
and  redeemed  humanity.  As  business  men  every- 
where become  more  familiar  with  human  nature  they 
will  gladly  change  their  methods  to  suit.  Business 
will  then  have  a  new  motive.  The  energy  hitherto 
wasted  in  a  mad  scramble  for  material  wealth  will 
be  intelligently  expended  in  a  delightful  purpose  to 
serve  humanity  in  the  same  effort  in  which  one  serves 
himself  and  the  best  interests  of  his  family. 

To  combine  business  and  service  is  radically  new  for 
the  commercial  world.  Heretofore,  the  aim  has  been 
to  lay  aside  philanthropy  and  the  interests  of  the 
common  welfare  during  business  hours  and  to  drive 
away  hard  until  the  Sabbath;  then  to  give  some  ser- 
vice as  the  occasion  might  allow.  But  now,  with  the 
stirring  motive  of  being  helpful  to  mankind  as  well 
as  self-sustaining,  the  ordinary  business  man  should 
find  new  delight  and  unusual  inspiration  in  the  pur- 
suit of  his  calling. 

THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  BUSINESS 

Under  this  modern  and  stirring  order  of  affairs 
there  will  doubtless  spring  up  a  course  of  commercial 
training  to  be  known  as  the  psychology  of  business. 
If  business  is  to  serve  human  nature  and  at  the  same 
time  satisfy  the  individual  requirements  of  a  fair  net 
gain,  then  the  first  duty  of  the  business  man  will  be 
to  know  human  nature.  The  introduction  to  this 
course  of  commercial  preparation  will  urge  substan- 
tially this : 

If  you  wish  to  be  assured  of  success  in  your  busi- 


THE  REGENERATION  OF  BUSINESS      61 

ness  become  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  Man, 
around  which  business  is  necessarily  centred.  Know 
in  outline  the  laws  of  human  inheritance,  know  how 
the  infant  develops  his  consciousness  and  his  under- 
standing of  the  things  of  life  through  the  medium  of 
his  personal  experience.  Know  how  the  young  ac- 
quires his  habits,  is  swayed  by  his  passions  and  emo- 
tions, assumes  control  of  his  will  and  finally  becomes 
a  responsible  director  of  his  own  affairs. 

The  new  psychology  of  business  also  leads  to  a 
most  practical  knowledge  of  how  a  person  thinks 
under  given  circumstances,  and  of  how  legitimately 
to  present  one's  commercial  interests  so  as  to  make 
them  appeal  to  the  busy  public  mind.  The  psychology 
of  advertising  is,  of  course,  included  here — a  power- 
ful instrument  of  good  or  of  evil,  depending  upon 
the  character  of  the  advertiser.  Now,  when  the  com- 
mon wayfaring  man  once  comes  to  a  knowledge  of 
the  ordinary  workings  of  the  mind  of  his  common 
fellow,  the  fraudulent  and  hypnotic  methods  of  the 
dishonest  advertiser  will  practically  be  at  an  end.  As 
it  is  to-day  the  people  are  very  much  at  his  mercy. 

So,  in  order  to  make  business  line  up  more  rapidly 
with  the  new  human  motive  which  is  pervading  it 
I  should  have  the  typical  chamber  of  commerce  of 
the  city  proceed  about  as  follows: — 

1.  All  members  lunch  together  at  noon  once  per 
week  and  at  the  close  of  the  repast  have  one  of  the 
group  or  his  appointee  discuss  briefly  some  aspects  of 
the  business  of  the  community  as  it  is  related  to 
human  welfare. 

2.  Once  per  month,  perhaps  at  evening,  let  all  who 


62      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

can  be  interested  meet  as  a  class  in  the  study  of  busi- 
ness psychology.  This  group  should  have  an  easy 
outline  text,  a  small  reference  library  and  an  able  in- 
structor to  guide  and  inspire  them.  They  should 
consider  first  a  brief  course  in  the  psychology  of 
human  development,  and  then  go  on  to  a  review  of 
the  practical  psychology  of  business.  The  latter 
would  include  a  study  of  the  personality  as  adapted  to 
the  different  lines  of  trade,  the  recreation  time  of 
clerks,  employes  in  special  lines  and  industrial 
workers,  the  several  types  and  methods  of  treatment 
of  employes  best  suited  to  promote  their  own  well- 
being  and  to  bring  them  a  progressive  development 
of  their  character  as  faithful  citizens  of  the  com- 
munity. 

Finally,  the  legitimate  business  of  the  world  will 
become  more  and  more  centred  around  Man  and 
less  around  things.  The  successful  business  man  will 
be  lured  on  by  a  cheering  vision  of  what  he  can  do 
to  make  his  calling  contributory  to  the  unfoldment  of 
his  fellows  with  whom  he  deals.  The  business  es- 
tablishment will  be  called  upon  frequently  for  a  re- 
port of  the  progress  it  is  making  in  its  efforts  to  deal 
helpfully  with  Man.  The  ordinary  city  will  be  ar- 
ranged more  to  suit  the  requirements  of  bringing  up 
a  family  and  of  a  happy  community  rather  than  for 
the  requirements  of  trading  in  merchandise. 


VI 

WORK  AS  A  MEANS  OF  SALVATION 

"By  the  sweat  of  thy  brow  shalt  thou  eat  bread"  is 
a  text  which  should  be  applied  literally  to  every  able- 
bodied  young  person  during  the  period  of  his  general 
development,  without  regard  to  his  social  or  economic 
standing.  But  before  he  is  through  with  his  care- 
fully directed  experience  as  an  industrialist  every 
young  man  should  learn  to  discuss  the  spiritual  mean- 
ing of  this  text  as  paraphrased,  "By  the  sweat  of  thy 
brow  shalt  thou  learn  to  partake  of  the  Bread  of 
Life." 

As  one  who  has  worked  for  weeks  and  even  months 
at  a  stretch,  from  ten  to  twelve  hours  per  day  and 
with  the  heaviest  instruments  of  common  labour,  per- 
haps I  have  some  right  to  discuss  the  topic  of  this 
chapter.  But  before  doing  so  let  me  remind  the 
reader  of  the  unusual  attitude  of  this  text  toward 
nearly  all  the  traditional  customs  of  mankind ;  namely, 
that  a  larger  part  of  our  best  human  endeavour  is 
gone  at  in  a  manner  which  reverses  the  true  nature  of 
things.  Following  our  assumption  that  the  world  war 
has  caused  Man  to  re-examine  himself  and  to  find 
within  a  new  basis  for  his  further  attempt  toward  a 
civilised  society,  we  readily  come  upon  the  false  ideal 

63 


64      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

of  the  superman  as  the  traditional  stumbling  block 
to  a  right  interpretation  of  labour. 


SUPERMANISM   A   MENACE 

The  current  attitude  of  the  masses  toward  common 
work  has  come  to  us  from  the  dark  ages,  from  the 
era  when  master  and  slave  were  the  only  two  con- 
spicuous divisions  of  society.  Out  of  this  condition 
of  general  ignorance  and  superstition  of  man  about 
himself  came  the  idea  that  common  labour  is  degrad- 
ing and  its  performance  a  mark  of  the  cheap  hireling. 

So  long  as  the  idea  of  a  superman  prevails  in  the 
mind  of  the  labourer — an  idea  of  an  over-lord  who 
is  exacting  and  mean  and  selfish  in  his  requirements — 
the  attitude  of  the  common  workman  toward  his  task 
will  be  one  of  hatred,  drudgery  and  superficial  per- 
formance. But  the  age  of  the  extinct  superman,  from 
which  we  are  now  emerging,  calls  for  a  reversal  of 
the  entire  labour  situation.  Instead  of  being  re- 
garded as  drudgery  and  degradation  common  work  is 
to  be  classed  as  a  means  of  joy  and  self -exaltation. 

THE  CHILD  AS  GUIDE 

The  little  child  is  our  best  and  safest  guide  to  the 
way  out  of  our  traditional  industrial  gloom.  Within 
his  unspoiled  nature  we  find  a  delightful  instinct  for 
manual  industry.  His  little  finger  tips  literally  tingle 
in  accompaniment  with  his  childish  desire  to  engage 
in  creative  work.  Until  we  shock  his  mind  with  the 
idea  that  common  work  is  appropriate  only  to  the 


WORK  AS  A  MEANS  OF  SALVATION  65 

cheap  hireling  or  the  person  of  weak  intellect  he 
rushes  forward  and  throws  all  the  energies  of  his 
young  life  into  the  accomplishment  of  the  plain  task 
before  him.  Thus  he  shows  us  the  only  key  to  the 
solution  of  our  trying  labour  problem. 

The  idea  in  mind  here  is  this.  The  instinct  for 
work  is  a  basic  part  of  the  inherent  nature  of  Man. 
To  learn  to  work  is  therefore  one  of  the  essential 
processes  whereby  he  must  discover  his  own  inher- 
itance and  that  of  the  race,  and  it  is  a  means  of  his 
own  personal  salvation.  The  time  is  coming — yea, 
some  have  reached  it  now — when  all  the  schools  will 
require  a  certain  amount  of  industrial  training  on  the 
part  of  each  child,  with  the  same  scrupulous  care  as 
was  traditionally  exercised  in  teaching  him  to  read. 
Indeed,  our  democracy  itself  is  here  deeply  involved. 
To  know  the  character  of  one's  fellows,  to  understand 
the  mind  of  the  race,  the  individual  must  travel  the 
course  of  life  over  the  great  highways  upon  which 
Man  has  necessarily  trod  on  his  way  to  self-suprem- 
acy— and  productive  industry  is  most  certainly  one  of 
these  exalted  ways.  And  just  as  any  race  or  nation 
of  people  quickly  becomes  decadent  without  the  prac- 
tice of  industry,  so  the  young  individual  remains  in 
part  undeveloped  and  continues  to  be  decadent  with- 
out his  share  of  industrial  training. 

WORK  AS  GROWTH  AND  CULTURE 

But  the  work  of  children  of  any  age  is  never 
properly  regarded  as  an  end  in  itself  or  as  a  means 
of  mere  bread-winning.  The  industry  of  the  young 


66      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

must  be  thought  of  as  an  agency  of  growth  and  char- 
acter development.  The  wealth  or  social  standing 
of  the  parent  does  not  properly  enter  into  the  matter. 
There  is  a  certain  amount  of  work  with  the  hands 
which  will  precisely  fit  the  age  and  the  period  of 
development  of  each  child;  and  to  cheat  him  out  of 
the  practice  of  such  industrial  experience  is  to  take 
away  his  divine  right  to  grow  up  in  a  normal  fashion 
and  to  contribute  his  part  in  the  continuous  democracy 
which,  under  right  conditions,  is  being  grown  by  every 
generation  of  the  young. 

As  seen  from  the  racial  point  of  view  common  work 
appears,  therefore,  as  a  means  of  life  and  growth  and 
personal  salvation.  Under  this  ideal  a  new  vision, 
a  new  motive,  appears  in  its  behalf.  Once  having 
discovered  the  inherent  universal  passion  for  indus- 
try which  the  Lord  of  All  the  Earth  seems  to  have 
placed  within  him,  the  individual  rises  to  a  concep- 
tion of  the  possible  exaltation  of  a  common  work  of 
the  world.  It  is  a  part  of  the  thrilling  drama  of 
human  existence  and  self-development.  It  is  one  of 
the  essential  avenues  by  which  one  comes  into  touch 
with  his  fellow  man.  It  is  one  of  the  epoch-making 
phases  of  normal  individual  growth  and  leads  one 
directly  toward  the  great  heart  of  humanity. 

THE   PSYCHOLOGY  OF  INDUSTRY 

How  much  manual  industry  per  day  should  be 
required  of  a  nine-year-old,  a  twelve-year-old  learner, 
in  order  to  preserve  his  industrial  instinct  and  make 
his  common  work  an  unspoiled  part  of  a  complete 


WORK  AS  A  MEANS  OF  SALVATION  67 

and  balanced  schedule  for  his  training?  This  ques- 
tion can  be  answered  as  definitely  as  the  question  of 
how  much  language  or  how  much  arithmetic  should 
be  required  of  each  pupil.  Also,  how  many  hours  per 
day,  per  week,  should  a  man  labour  at  his  machine  or 
his  desk?  And  how  may  this  industrial  experience 
become  wholesomely  related  to  all  the  other  elements 
of  his  complete,  living  experience?  And,  then,  how 
can  the  labourer  become  so  adjusted  to  his  work  as  to 
give  him  a  sense  of  dignity  and  rank  and  as  one  who 
is  assisting  the  world  to  grow  its  own  democracy? 

The  foregoing  questions  bring  us  to  the  very  core 
of  our  tremendous  problem  of  dealing  with  the 
labouring  masses  as  we  proceed  to  the  after-war  re- 
construction of  society.  And,  happily,  a  partial  an- 
swer to  these  inquiries  has  been  stumbled  upon  in 
the  course  of  our  feverish  war  industry.  In  the  first 
place,  the  common  workman  was  perhaps  never  be- 
fore so  happy  during  the  history  of  our  Government 
as  he  was  during  the  period  of  the  war.  And,  why? 
Motive  is  the  answer.  For  once  the  workman  enjoyed 
a  real,  human  appeal:  Apply  yourself  earnestly,  pa- 
tiently, skilfully — not  for  a  hard  selfish  master,  but 
for  the  sake  of  a  possible  freedom  for  all  mankind. 
It  was  thought  of  as  all  for  sweet  humanity's  sake; 
and  the  effort  of  the  common  workman,  the  output  of 
his  skill,  became  one  of  the  most  superb  accomplish- 
ments of  the  exciting  period. 

LABOUR  AS  SOUL  NOURISHMENT 

The  joy  of  the  workman  is  in  the  end  and  that 
enlivens  the  act.  Not  work  but  drudgery  kills.  The 


68      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

capacity  of  the  ordinary  person  to  resist  the  strain  of 
heavy  labour  is  little  short  of  marvellous  if  it  is  all 
done  for  the  sake  of  the  one  he  loves — his  wife,  sweet- 
heart, child — for  his  very  own.  The  physical  endur- 
ance of  the  typical  mother  as  she  toils  devotedly  for 
her  family  is  entirely  out  of  proportion  to  her  physical 
strength.  She  is  the  last  to  quit,  the  last  to  go  on  a 
strike.  There  is  a  kind  of  secret  glory  in  her  soul 
as  she  slowly  consumes  her  last  ounce  of  strength  in 
the  service  of  those  she  loves. 

Now,  while  we  must  plan  most  earnestly  for  a 
sure  and  adequate  wage  for  all  labour  no  amount  of 
money  can  ever  satisfy  the  properly  adjusted  labourer. 
It  is  only  the  love  which  he  harbours  in  his  heart  for 
mankind  and  which  he  exemplifies  by  his  work;  it  is 
only  the  love  which  men — those  close  enough  to  ap- 
preciate— harbour  for  him.  In  short,  the  money 
motive  for  industry  gives  place  to  the  fellowship  mo- 
tive and  the  team  motive,  and  drudgery  correspond- 
ingly gives  place  to  charm. 

The  eager  delight  of  the  little  child  building  his 
block  house,  the  touching  devotion  of  the  mother 
exerting  every  spare  ounce  of  her  energy  in  behalf  of 
her  flock,  the  serene  solitude  of  the  sturdy  husband- 
man toiling  early  and  late  to  support  his  family,  the 
self -forget  fulness  of  the  artist,  or  the  researchist 
while  he  patiently  applies  his  genius  to  some  really 
human  purpose — all  these  are  a  part  of  the  same 
beautiful  centrepiece  in  God's  fine  table  of  values. 
They  are  illustrations  of  the  worker  lost  in  service 
of  a  law  which  is  both  human  and  divine. 


WORK  AS  A  MEANS  OF  SALVATION     69 

LABOUR  DEFEATING  ITSELF 

So  long  as  the  labouring  class  continue  to  regard 
their  employment  as  a  treadmill  and  their  employer 
as  one  who  would  exploit  their  energies;  so  long  as 
they  must  require  each  member  of  their  class  to  hold 
back  and  do  only  a  stipulated  day's  work;  so  long 
as  labour  is  regarded  as  a  sort  of  punishment  which 
a  man  must  suffer  because  of  being  uneducated  or 
short  in  some  quality — the  soul  of  industry  can  never 
arise  to  its  proper,  heaven-ordained  level.  But  once 
adjust  the  labourer  to  his  task,  turn  the  workman 
loose  with  the  training  and  the  machinery  suited  to  his 
self-appointed  trade,  and  the  amount  of  his  product 
will  happily  take  care  of  itself.  At  the  same  time  the 
quality  of  his  effort  will  increase  many  fold. 

When  Charles  M.  Schwab  took  hold  of  the  vast 
ship-building  project  of  the  Government  during  the 
war,  why  did  this  industry  leap  into  sensational  pro- 
portions? It  was  this :  Mr.  Schwab  was  a  real  human 
being  in  the  eyes  of  the  workman.  He  had  developed 
his  life  and  nourished  his  soul  during  early  manhood 
with  a  hammer  in  his  hands.  He  walked  and  talked 
with  workmen  in  the  familiar  ways  of  one  of  their 
own  number.  He  knew  the  language  of  their  hearts, 
and  was  to  them  a  kind  of  transfigured  form  of  the 
Great  Common  Humanity  which  America  was  then 
struggling  to  save.  So  much  of  what  the  large  army 
of  ship-builders  did  under  Mr.  Schwab's  direction 
and  inspiration  rose  almost  to  the  level  of  a  great 
spiritual  revival,  it  was  a  worthy  companion  of  the 


70      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

finest  musical  symphony  and  the  most  celebrated  epic 
poem. 

"It  is  you  men  at  the  quarry,  at  the  lathe  and  at 
the  furnace,  who  are  doing  this  fine  piece  of  work  for 
Uncle  Sam,  and  not  myself.  I  am  a  mere  cog  in  the 
wheel.  It  is  your  attitude,  your  splendid  spirit  of 
service  and  sacrifice  that  counts  for  most.  I  am  here 
to  praise  you  and  to  thank  you  in  behalf  of  the  nation 
for  the  way  in  which  you  are  responding  to  its  call 
for  support  of  the  mighty  cause  at  stake." 

CAPITAL  AND   LABOUR  A   UNIT 

One  special  purpose  in  mind  here  is  to  urge  that 
the  labour  problem  is  not  fundamentally  an  adjust- 
ment of  the  alleged  differences  of  capital  and  labour 
but  rather  an  adjustment  of  man  to  man.  The 
divided  heart  of  humanity  is  at  stake.  It  is  in  a  sense 
the  case  of  an  under-developed  employer  attempting 
to  shake  the  destinies  of  a  group  of  under-developed 
workmen.  The  two  hafve  never  actually  met  and 
mingled  on  the  only  common  level  which  could  pos- 
sibly bring  them  together;  namely,  a  common  racial 
experience  during  all  the  years  of  their  early  develop- 
ment— common  play,  common  work,  common  conten- 
tion, common  sociability,  common  religious  oppor- 
tunity, common  vocational  direction,  and  so  on. 

During  the  recent  war  period,  the  national  Govern- 
ment dealt  with  capital  and  labour  in  the  most  ideal 
manner  ever  known  to  the  American  people.  It  pro- 
ceeded under  the  assumption  that  wealth  belongs  to 
all  those  who  have  a  part  in  creating  it  and  not  merely 


WORK  AS  A  MEANS  OF  SALVATION     71 

to  those  who  manipulate  it.  "Here,  Mr.  Labourer, 
your  country  needs  you.  Take  this  job  and  master 
it  quickly.  A  good  wage  goes  with  it,  but  that  is  a 
mere  incident.  Forget  the  wage  as  you  bend  your 
effort  to  the  task.  Be  clean,  sober,  honest  and  faith- 
ful, as  you  contribute  your  part  in  the  struggle  for 
world  democracy."  Such  was  the  admonition  of 
Uncle  Sam  as  he  called  out  his  army  of  workmen,  and 
the  world  knows  the  superb  result  of  the  mammoth 
industrial  effort  of  the  country. 

Likewise,  the  Government  admonished  the  captain 
of  wealth :  "Your  money  and  your  established  business 
are  but  a  sacred  trust.  Especially  at  this  time  you 
owe  it  to  the  supreme  issue  upon  which  the  nation  is 
bent  to  turn  all  but  a  fair  margin  of  your  profit  back 
to  the  support  of  the  whole  people.  The  cause  of 
humanity  is  paramount,  the  ideal  of  world  freedom 
overshadows  all."  The  mass  of  our  capitalists  gladly 
assented  to  this  demand  of  the  Government. 

Here,  then,  is  a  hint  at  the  only  key  to  the  solu- 
tion of  the  trouble  between  capital  and  labour,  and 
that  is  for  both  to  know  the  life  of  Common  Man 
from  having  experienced  the  essential  elements  of 
that  life,  and  for  both  to  become  actuated  by  the 
same  motive;  namely,  to  serve  the  cause  of  human 
welfare,  each  side  in  accordance  with  its  peculiar 
capacity. 

THE  PRESENT  ISSUE 

But,  even  though  the  war  is  won  and  the  mighty 
armies  are  being  demobilised,  the  struggle  for  world 
democracy  is  not  half  finished.  The  well-being  of 


72      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

Great  Common  Man  is  still  a  tremendous  issue  and 
the  patriotic  devotion  of  all  classes  is  no  less  urgent 
than  before.  Then  why  should  there  be  a  let  up  of 
the  appeal  to  capital  to  devote  its  major  profits  to 
this  world  cause,  and  the  appeal  to  labour  to  forget 
itself  in  a  permanent  zeal  for  the  full  salvation  of  all 
the  race? 

To  the  end  that  the  ideal  here  outlined  may  become 
more  real  as  time  goes  on  there  is  an  apparent  neces- 
sity of  doing  two  or  three  significant  things  for  the 
adjustment  of  the  labourer.  The  first  is  the  psycho- 
logical measurement  of  the  workman.  His  reaction 
time  needs  to  be  known,  too,  in  order  that  we  may  be 
certain  that  he  is  not  working  at  a  machine  which  is 
too  fast  for  him.  Second,  every  place  of  employment 
should  have  its  regular  vocational  adjuster,  one  who 
would  study  the  character  and  personality  of  every 
employe  and  keep  shifting  him  till  he  found  a  place 
where  his  body  and  mind  both  adequately  fit  the  task 
at  which  he  is  employed.  Third,  every  such  estab- 
lishment should  be  required  to  have  its  social  adjuster, 
to  work  constantly  toward  the  aim  of  assisting  the 
employes  in  assuming  a  permanent  happy  relation 
to  their  home  life  and  to  the  life  of  the  community 
in  which  they  reside. 

Thus  common  industry  will  tend  to  a  means  of 
salvation  unto  every  normal  individual  and  a  saving 
grace  to  all  the  people  who  participate  as  a  whole  in 
its  best  inspired  methods. 


VII 

A  NEW  INTERPRETATION  OF  MOTHERHOOD 

The  war  of  nations  has  brought  a  new  era  and  a 
new  meaning  for  motherhood,  and  a  significance  for 
it  which  fits  into  the  ideal  of  the  re-discovered  com- 
mon humanity.  This  transformed  conception  per- 
haps places  less  emphasis  upon  physical  maternity  than 
was  the  case  under  the  old  definition,  the  idea  now 
being  this :  Physical  motherhood  is  to  be  thought  of 
as  a  happy  and  natural  incident  of  spiritual  mother- 
hood. 

LOVE  MUST  LEAD  THE  WAY 

At  the  beginning  of  the  world  war,  when  the  boasted 
civilisation  of  the  ages  and  the  proud  achievements  of 
the  masculine  wing  of  the  human  family  went  down 
with  a  crash,  not  a  few  men  were  ready  to  give  up  in 
disgust.  These  said  substantially  this :  We  men  have 
failed  ignominiously.  If  we  had  planned  the  wreck 
and  ruin  of  the  world  for  an  entire  generation  we 
could  not  possibly  have  accomplished  this  thing  more 
completely.  Let  us  turn  the  whole  affair  over  to 
the  women.  They  could  not  do  worse  and  they  might 
do  better. 

But  it  was  not  to  be  so.  Men  had  led  society  into 
the  bloody  orgy  and  it  was  the  decree  of  fate  that 

73 


74      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

they  should  fight  their  way  out.  However,  woman 
did  get  into  the  war  and  that  on  a  scale  of  unprece- 
dented and  tremendous  value.  But  she  got  in  through 
practically  the  only  significant  avenue  of  activity 
which  history  has  ever  opened  up  to  her  in  any  human 
cause,  great  or  small.  She  got  into  the  world  war  as 
Mother  and  fought  it  to  a  finish  with  the  only  power- 
ful weapon  which  the  Almighty  ever  gave  to  her; 
namely,  her  mother  love.  The  vast  achievement  of 
ministering  to  the  ill,  the  wounded,  the  homesick  and 
the  discouraged  boys  in  our  army  camps  and  canton- 
ments— this,  rightly  defined,  is  but  a  classic  expression 
of  the  great  mother  heart  inherent  in  all  womankind. 
It  was  but  the  combined  mother  love  of  all  the  nations 
involved  on  both  sides,  acting  true  to  the  mission 
which  Eternity  has  implanted  within  the  feminine 
nature.  Over  the  wide  and  treacherous  seas,  out 
through  swamp  and  morass,  and  on  through  the  battle- 
torn  area — right  up  to  the  sickening  place  of  slaughter 
— the  great  loving  heart  of  womankind  has  gone  on 
its  mission  of  healing  and  mercy. 

In  heaven's  own  good  time,  when  the  drama  of  all 
the  ages  shall  have  been  wrought  into  sweet  symphony 
or  song,  this  present  achievement  of  the  Universal 
Mother  of  Man  will  stand  out  as  the  grandest  sonata 
of  all  time  up  to  date. 

MOTHERHOOD    AND    RECONSTRUCTION 

But  what  we  particularly  wish  to  emphasise  here 
is  the  idea  of  motherhood  as  a  powerful  factor  in  the 
post-war  re-direction  of  society.  To  reiterate  some- 


A  NEW  INTERPRETATION  75 

what,  the  point  is  this :  Motherhood  is  the  predominant 
instinct  of  all  normal  and  ordinarily  good  women. 
It  begins  at  adolescence  in  form  of  an  earnest  and 
yet  ill-defined  desire  for  physical  maternity,  and 
ripens  slowly — under  right  conditions — into  a  sympa- 
thetic desire  for  life-long  spiritual  maternity. 

When  once  we  understand  the  general  nature  of  the 
germ  plasm  and  the  law  of  physical  procreation  and 
assume  in  reason  that  the  Creator  of  Human  Nature 
has  taken  ample  care  of  that,  we  readily  observe  that 
spiritual  motherhood — or  what  I  have  called  the 
eternal  motherliness — that  this  is  here  our  chief  item 
of  concern  as  we  proceed  with  our  plan  for  the  direc- 
tion of  human  society.  Wherefore,  in  order  to  make 
the  matter  a  bit  more  emphatic,  I  am  about  ready  to 
say — 

I  care  little  what  particular  mothers  among  our 
general  enlightened  stock  happen  to  give  birth  to  the 
children,  provided  that  practically  all  ordinary  women 
develop  an  intelligent  and  abiding  mother  love  for 
them.  I  do  not  particularly  care  what  occupations 
women  may  engage  in  for  a  livelihood,  provided  they 
continue  to  make  that  work  a  mere  pleasant  incident 
in  their  whole  lives  while  they  subordinate  it  to  that 
element  of  their  inherent  make-up  which  is  far  more 
fundamental  for  themselves  and  for  society;  namely, 
motherliness.  And,  as  a  voluntary  organisation 
suited  to  give  such  a  vision  to  growing  girls,  there  is 
perhaps  nothing  else  in  the  class  of  the  "Camp  Fire 
Girls  of  America." 


76      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

THE  TEST  OF  CHARACTER 

Now  while  mankind  in  general,  the  Great  Common 
Man,  is  indeed  the  true  measure  of  all  things  worth 
while  in  this  new  awakening  age,  womankind  as  a 
phase  of  man  is  the  measure  with  which  to  gauge 
properly  at  any  moment  the  status  of  childhood.  The 
woman  who  understands  children  and  so  loves  them 
intelligently,  thereby  guarantees  her  fitness  for  society 
and  her  preparedness  to  do  her  share  of  its  work. 
Such  a  woman  may  conceivably,  on  rare  occasions, 
commit  some  wrong  act;  but  in  the  main  her  life  will 
be  serviceable,  she  will  do  little  or  no  violence  to  the 
substantial  race  life,  and  she  is  therefore  entitled  to 
an  exalted  place  in  any  worthy  democracy. 

And  so  it  comes  about  that  some  of  the  rarest  and 
best  mothers  in  the  world  do  not  happen  to  give 
birth  to  any  children  of  their  own  flesh  and  blood. 
They  pass  the  test  of  a  high  social  service  as  defined 
above,  and  continue  with  their  beautiful  ministry. 
One  of  the  most  delightful  mothers  in  this  great  coun- 
try of  ours  to-day  happens  to  be  a  spinster  who  has 
conspicuously  headed  a  large  social  settlement  in  one 
of  our  big,  congested,  shop  districts.  Denied — provi- 
dentially, it  may  be — the  common  physical  heritage  of 
offspring  of  her  own,  this  fine  type  of  embodied  ma- 
ternal love  has  effectively  touched  the  lives  of  many 
thousands  of  needy  boys  and  girls.  She  has  patiently 
studied  the  juvenile  nature  from  the  time  of  its  first 
infantile  expression  till  that  of  its  mature  activities. 
Through  public  speech  and  written  account  she  has 
given  to  society  the  benefits  of  her  far-seeing  vision 


A  NEW  INTERPRETATION  77 

for  the  best  possible  development  of  juvenile  character. 
And  all  this  constructive  service  has  continued  till  one 
might  reasonably  say :  I  care  not  what  particular  blood 
strain  of  normal  parents  in  the  Hull-House  district 
may  give  birth  to  the  children,  provided  all  these  little 
ones  come  properly  under  the  magic  influence  of  Jane 
Addams  as  their  spiritual  mother. 


WOMAN   SELF-CORRECTIVE 

Motherliness  is  not  only  the  most  charming  vir- 
tue in  womankind — because  it  is  most  potent  as  a 
factor  in  the  progress  of  the  race — but  it  is  also  a 
self-corrective.  Led  on  by  the  early  instinct  for  sex- 
ual maternity  the  normal  woman  continues  during  a 
long  period  to  ripen  into  a  sympathetic  soul,  intelligent 
as  to  the  unfolding  character  of  the  young  humanity 
around  her.  In  proportion  as  her  consciousness  of 
the  universal  child  nature  expands,  so  the  frivolities 
and  superficialities  drop  away  from  her  personality. 
A  vain  and  frivolous  character  in  woman  is  merely  a 
sign  of  undevelopment  or  retarded  growth.  Simply 
that  which  was  normal  for  the  mere  girl  has  lingered 
too  long  in  the  daily  practice  of  the  mature  woman. 

Acting  upon  the  theory  that  intelligent  motherhood 
as  an  acquired  quality  of  feminine  mind  is  self-cor- 
rective, let  us  bring  up  the  illustration  of  the  "blind" 
character  of  the  early  maternal  instinct.  That  is, 
while  the  normal  mother  inherits  strongly  the  instinct 
to  nourish,  safeguard  and  otherwise  defend  her  child 
she  does  not  inherit  a  whit  of  information  as  how 
best  to  do  these  things.  This  she  must  learn.  Her 


78      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

uninstructed  instinct  may  lead  her  to  feed  her  baby 
poison,  to  deprive  it  of  sufficient  air  or  to  give  it  a 
bath  in  the  wrong  manner.  The  when,  the  how  and 
the  how  much — these  particular  matters  relating  to 
her  infant  a  mother  must  learn  through  schooling. 


WOMAN  AS  LAW-GIVER 

It  has  been  my  custom  during  recent  years  to  urge 
that  women  seek  places  on  the  ordinary  board  of 
education  and  as  members  of  the  legislature — and 
why?  Simply  because  these  represent  the  type  of  a 
considerable  list  of  public  offices  which  call  for  a  dis- 
tinctively motherly  service.  It  need  not  be  argued 
that  more  than  one-half  the  school  problems  which 
come  up  for  adjustment  are  problems  of  mothering. 
When  we  understand  the  matter  aright  it  appears  as 
awkward  an  affair  for  a  group  of  mere  men  to  legis- 
late for  a  kindergarten  school  as  it  does  for  a  com- 
mon man  to  attempt  to  dress  an  infant. 

Again  the  inside  observer  of  human  affairs  can 
readily  see  that  an  ordinary  legislative  assembly  must 
wrestle  almost  continually  with  matters  which  are 
vitally  related  to  the  welfare  of  the  children.  And 
without  the  advantage  of  a  mother  heart  to  weigh 
these  juvenile  situations  the  young  are  almost  certain 
to  be  dealt  with  harshly  or  crudely.  Of  course,  I  am 
aware  that  the  large  majority  of  school  boards  are 
constituted  exclusively  of  men,  but  that  to  me  is  a 
certain  indication  that  the  local  society  which  toler- 
ates such  a  thing  has  not  yet  thought  out  its  own  best 
possible  existence.  Also,  I  am  inclined  to  believe 


A  NEW  INTERPRETATION  79 

that  the  same  sort  of  criticism  may  in  time  to  come 
be  justly  placed  against  the  ordinary  all-masculine 
legislature. 

MOTHERLY    MUSIC 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  in  passing  that  there  are 
really  only  two  great  classes  of  vocal  music  in  use  to- 
day: the  martial  air,  or  the  father  song;  and  the 
lullaby,  or  the  mother  song.  The  one  stimulates  the 
fighter  as  he  goes  into  battle  and  the  Common  Man 
as  he  essays  any  form  of  courageous  action.  The 
other  cheers  and  sustains  the  mother  as  she  toils  over- 
time in  sacrifice  for  her  children,  and  it  cheers  the 
heart  of  the  common  woman  who  is  unfolded  to  the 
proper  point  of  juvenile  appreciation.  Likewise, 
these  two  types  of  song  perform  a  distinctive  office 
in  shaping  the  conduct  of  the  young — the  one  to 
arouse  to  activity,  the  other  to  soothe  into  slumbers. 

Wherefore,  the  proper  orientation  of  all  that  is 
"eternally  feminine"  in  common  womankind  implies 
the  acquired  ability  to  appreciate  and  enjoy  the  volu- 
minous mother  songs  of  the  race.  And  the  course  of 
lessons  suited  to  bring  this  peculiar  element  to  its 
own  in  the  development  of  any  woman  implies  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  distinctive  training.  Badly  as  we 
have  reversed  this  matter  in  our  traditional  schools 
it  is  far  more  important  that  the  growing  girl  be 
taught  to  know  and  appreciate  the  great  standard 
lullaby  songs  than  that  she  learn  her  arithmetic  above 
the  rule  of  three.  Indeed,  it  is  high  time  that  we  drop 
out  of  the  school  course  of  instruction  for  the  ordinary 
girl  a  lot  of  the  traditional  nonsense  with  which  we 


8o      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

have  been  wont  to  pester  her  sensitive  nature  during 
the  generations  past.  How  little  she  cares  for  higher 
mathematics  and  how  insignificant  its  practical  use  to 
her! 

THE  FEMININE  ARTS 

Instead  of  the  higher  abstract  science  and  the  other 
masculine-logical  forms  of  instruction  hitherto  offered 
to  women  the  new  age  now  calls  upon  her  more  in- 
sistently than  ever  for  a  course  of  training  that  will 
give  unction  to  the  eternally  feminine  soul,  and  this 
constitutes  all  the  feminine  and  mothering  arts. 
While  a  broad  and  general  foundation  should  be  laid 
for  the  special  training  of  womankind,  her  inherent 
nature  points  directly  to  a  finishing  course  which  tends 
best  to  satisfy  her  predominant  maternal  instincts. 
A  girl  needs  to  pass  hurriedly  over  an  outline  of  the 
race  life  practically  the  same  as  the  boy.  In  order 
to  democratise  her  she  must  be  taught  to  play,  to 
work,  to  be  sociable,  to  worship,  and  to  be  romantic, 
in  association  with  the  common  group.  Then,  finally, 
she  must  conclude  with  a  course  which  answers  to 
the  deeper  yearnings  of  her  own  peculiar  nature. 

A  lengthy  series  of  tests  has  shown  that  the  typical 
young  woman  acquires  extreme  pleasure  from  a  prac- 
tical study  of  infant  and  childhood  psychology  and 
that  this  interesting  discipline  opens  a  new  and  charm- 
ing outlook  for  her  own  life.  Out  of  some  four  hun- 
dred college  girls  who  were  required  to  study  child- 
hood under  a  course  which  included  a  baby  labora- 
tory, less  than  five  per  cent,  showed  a  negative  or  at 
all  indifferent  response.  There  should  be  a  day  nurs- 


A  NEW  INTERPRETATION  81 

ery  in  connection  with  every  girl's  high  school  course 
— if  not  lower  in  the  grades — and  here  the  pupil 
should  come  daily  for  a  period  of  interesting  labora- 
tory work. 


So  called  woman's  rights  are  never  anything  for 
which  she  can  appropriately  contend  by  force.  Her 
chief  right  is  the  right  to  the  normal  exercise  of 
the  mother  love  which  Divinity  has  placed  in  the 
depths  of  her  nature;  and  this  exercise  may  become 
differentiated  into  a  thousand  minor  forces.  Fortu- 
nately for  society  at  large  and  for  the  race,  the 
great  war  has  rapidly  advanced  womankind  toward 
the  general  emancipation  of  her  sex  and  from  the 
slavery  of  ignorance  and  tradition.  While  man 
fought  she  loved ;  and  by  demonstrating  her  love  on  a 
scale  hitherto  unknown  to  the  world  she  opened  the 
eyes  and  touched  the  heart  of  her  brother  and  he  will- 
ingly cleared  the  way  for  her  freedom. 

However,  the  new  freedom  into  which  womankind 
is  moving  throughout  the  world  proves  to  be  merely 
a  freedom  to  assert  her  eternally  feminine  and 
her  eternally  motherly  self.  The  awful  strain  of  the 
war,  the  new  risks  and  dangers  to  which  it  subjugated 
her  became  to  her  an  epoch-making  opportunity  for 
self -disco  very  and  for  self -exploitation  of  the  best 
hidden  resources  of  her  nature.  And  so,  out  of  the 
turmoil  and  the  agony  of  the  battle-line  there  has 
slowly  emerged  not  only  a  new  and  higher  type  of 
Common  Man  but  likewise  a  finer  and  more  re- 
splendent type  of  common  woman. 


82      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

THE  PRACTICAL  LESSON 

At  length  we  come  to  the  practical  aspects  of  the 
problem.  And  as  we  attempt  to  scrutinise  more 
closely  the  nature  of  ordinary  woman  in  order  to  dis- 
cover additional  guide  lines  for  the  reconstruction  of 
society,  our  first  conclusion  is  this :  Womankind  will 
be  her  best,  grow  into  her  finest  type  of  beauty,  and 
obtain  her  greatest  satisfaction  of  soul  during  her  nor- 
mal life,  only — as  a  rule — in  case  she  be  led  through 
a  course  of  inquiry  into  the  nature  and  the  practical 
requirements  of  children.  Second,  we  conclude  that 
one  of  the  next  valuable  courses  which  could  be  re- 
quired of  the  youth  of  high-school  age  should  be  an 
outline  study  of  the  physical  and  psychical  nature  of 
woman.  Thus  while  man  would  acquire  a  reverent 
and  defensive  attitude  toward  all  womankind,  woman 
in  time  would  acquire  an  intelligent  and  motherly  atti- 
tude toward  all  ordinary  children.  And  through  these 
fundamental  procedures,  we  should  have  a  race  of 
beings  perpetuating  itself  not  only  physically  but  also 
perpetuating  and  transmitting  from  age  to  age  its 
highest  types  of  social  and  spiritual  behaviour. 


VIII 

ADOLESCENT  LOVE  AS  HUMAN  WELFARE 

At  a  certain  tender  age,  the  youth  or  the  maiden  is 
as  prone  to  be  in  love  as  the  sparks  to  fly  upward. 
The  first  divine  right  of  the  young  person  at  this  par- 
ticular crisis  in  his  life  is  to  be  accorded  a  rational 
programme  of  opportunities  for  intermingling  with 
the  young  of  his  age  upon  a  romantic  basis.  Pick  up 
any  course  of  study  in  any  high  school  and  you  will 
find  a  detailed  outline  of  the  required  amount  of  sci- 
ence, mathematics  and  literature.  But  these  pro- 
grammes are  more  or  less  artificial  to  youth  and  they 
may  be  made  entirely  so. 

LOVE-MAKING  THE  FIRST   COURSE 

The  first  great  topic  of  instruction  during  the  ordi- 
nary high  school  age,  the  one  prescribed  by  the 
Originator  of  human  nature,  is  a  course  in  adolescent 
love-making.  And,  while  the  name  of  the  course  may 
have  a  less  sensational  sound,  its  purpose  we  cannot 
afford  to  overlook.  It  is  this :  To  lead  the  young 
learner  through  his  new,  wide-open  avenue  of  emo- 
tional interest  to  a  knowledge  of  his  own  life  and  to 
an  understanding  of  the  normal  conduct  of  his  fellows 
and  of  mankind  in  general. 

83 


84      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

Adolescent  love  leads  the  way  for  the  only  possible 
mental  instruction  and  guidance  of  youth.  In  re- 
sponse to  certain  radical  organic  changes  within — the 
dawn  of  puberty — the  young  person  now  enters  an 
entirely  new  individual  epoch  of  life  and  action.  To 
him  old  things  are  passed  away ;  all  things  are  become 
new  indeed.  Heaven  ordained  it  so,  and  we  who  are 
older  should  be  ashamed  to  try  to  do  any  violence  to 
the  stirring  emotion  of  adolescent  love.  Least  of  all, 
should  we  suppress  it.  Most  of  all,  we  should  and 
must  try  to  give  it  some  guidance. 

It  need  not  worry  us,  therefore,  if  the  young  adoles- 
cent dreamer  places  his  love  interest  above  all  and 
seems  willing  to  mortgage  his  very  soul  for  another 
opportunity  to  mingle  unhindered  with  the  young 
crowd. 

YOUTH  AND  THE  RACE 

We  shall  get  on  with  the  sound  re-direction  of 
society  just  as  fast  as  we  prepare  to  do  so  through  a 
knowledge  of  the  race  inheritance  potential  in  every 
normal  individual.  We  shall  be  prepared  to  give  ad- 
vice to  the  leaders  of  the  vast  human  procession  at 
large,  therefore,  in  proportion  as  we  read  clearly  the 
mandates  of  the  heart  of  the  young  adolescent  dreamer. 
It  is  here  if  ever  that  the  young  individual  goes  "over 
the  top."  It  is  here  that  the  vision  of  youth  takes 
its  first  and  greatest  broad  sweep  over  the  behaviour 
of  mankind  in  general  and  of  womankind  in  particular. 

The  high-school  teacher  who  is  not  familiar  with 
the  adolescent  young  nature  as  the  greatest  fact  in 
relation  to  the  curriculum,  is  simply  working  in  a  blind 


ADOLESCENT  LOVE  85 

alley.  The  statesman  who  would  make  laws  to  gov- 
ern the  land  without  a  knowledge  of  the  fundamental 
heart  hunger  and  social  need  of  youth  is  likely  to 
dwindle  to  the  dimensions  of  a  mere  politician.  The 
high  councillor  who  may  sit  at  a  great  world  peace 
conference  cannot  be  said  to  possess  plenary  authority 
in  case  he  fails  to  recognise  the  fact  that  youth  is 
the  time  when  the  individual  acquires  and  organises 
his  best  conscious  attitudes  toward  all  the  larger  af- 
fairs of  human  society. 


ROMANCE  AND   RECONSTRUCTION 

It  is  futile  to  assume  that  post-war  reconstruction 
is  to  be  an  accomplishment  of  a  brief  season  or  of  a 
year  or  two.  While  a  big  pretentious  programme  may 
be  launched  rather  quickly,  to  carry  it  out  requires  a 
vast  amount  of  propaganda,  direction  and  education. 
So  reconstruction  is,  properly  so  called,  a  continuous 
affair. 

Now,  a  large  and  powerful  aspect  of  the  normal  life 
of  society  is  romance,  and  this  in  turn  has  its  begin- 
ning and  its  best  sanction  from  the  inherent  mating 
tendency  of  adolescence.  All  the  world  not  only  loves 
the  lover,  but  all  the  world  is  certain  to  mix  in  with 
his  affairs.  A  practical  programme  for  society  at  large 
must  therefore  take  strict  cognizance  of  the  necessary 
and  large  amount  of  trial  and  error  of  youthful  lovers, 
of  the  more  serious  problem  of  the  young  person  in 
finding  a  suitable  life  mate,  and  of  the  strong  romantic 
thread  which  binds  together  many  of  the  common  in- 
terests of  the  human  family. 


86      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

And  now,  by  returning  to  one  of  our  basic  ideals, 
namely,  that  the  only  way  to  bring  a  real  democracy 
in  the  world  is  for  the  growing  young  to  produce  it 
out  of  their  living  experiences — if  we  a^ain  start  from 
this  point,  we  readily  observe  the  necessity  of  guiding 
every  adolescent  boy  and  girl  carefully  through  the 
mighty  race  epoch  into  which  they  have  been  plunged 
by  nature's  plan. 

THE  BOOK  OF  WISDOM 

The  new  Book  of  Wisdom  for  adolescence,  there- 
fore, is  the  book  of  love  dreams.  Its  first  pages  are 
inspired  by  a  somewhat  vague  sexual  desire,  but  its 
chapters  soon  lead  into  a  broadening  social  experience. 
The  first  duty  of  the  young  here  is  to  plunge  into 
social  life  as  the  avenues  open  up  and  flounder  through 
as  best  he  can.  The  first  duty  of  society — of  the 
home,  the  school,  the  church  and  the  other  directive 
institutions — is  to  give  the  best  guidance  which  so- 
ciety at  large  has  acquired  from  its  own  trial  and  error. 

Our  traditional  error  in  dealing  with  youth  is  to 
regard  its  desires  as  whimsical  and  the  satisfaction  of 
them  as  so  much  pleasure  necessary  to  be  gratified  in 
order  that  we  may  preserve  the  peace  of  the  home  and 
the  school.  We  have  failed  largely  to  understand  that 
adolescent  love-making  is  not  merely  for  fun  and 
amusement,  that  the  social  experiences  to  which  it 
leads  are  not  justified  on  the  ground  of  a  mere  pleasant 
diversion;  but  that  the  love  passion  of  the  young  is 
the  master-key  to  the  direction  of  society,  both  now 
and  in  the  future.  Adolescent  love-making — which 


ADOLESCENT  LOVE  87 

acts  chiefly  through  youthful  sociability — is  at  its 
time  of  life  the  only  significant  agency  we  possess  for 
acquainting  the  young  with  his  own  inner  life,  for  fa- 
miliarising him  with  the  normal  behaviour  of  man 
and  for  introducing  him  to  the  major  interests  of 
human  society. 


STUDY  OF  THE  SEXES 

The  leading  study  for  boys  of  the  adolescent  age 
is  girls  and  the  leading  study  for  girls  is  boys.  By 
this  it  is  not  meant  to  insist  that  there  should  be  any 
such  thing  as  a  text-book  course  of  the  kind  here 
implied  specifically  labeled  and  outlined  as  such. 
The  meaning  in  general  is  this :  The  only  way  to  be 
certain  that  a  young  person  of  the  class  named  will 
show  a  genuine  interest  in  a  topic  of  study  is  to  make 
apparent  its  relations  to  the  social  and  racial  activities 
just  now  most  attractive  to  the  learner. 

The  co-educational  school  is  the  only  possible  form 
of  democratic  institution  during  adolescence  because 
it  is  the  only  kind  of  school  which  at  this  time  of 
life  can  be  made  a  laboratory  of  racial  experience. 
You  may  segregate  boys  in  a  high  school  of  their 
own  and  perhaps  so  secure  an  easier  discipline  and 
a  few  higher  class  grades  in  the  routine  lesson  topics. 
But  we  must  remember  that  the  lessons  are  not,  prop- 
erly considered,  to  be  pursued  for  their  own  sake. 
They  are  not  merely  a  means  of  making  grades,  of 
gaining  promotions  and  of  securing  evidence  of  suc- 
cessful study.  All  the  real  lessons  in  the  school  are 
for  the  sake  of  life  more  abundant.  Their  purpose 


88      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

is  fundamentally  that  of  promoting  a  happy  and  help- 
ful relation  of  the  learner  to  others  and  to  society  both 
present  and  future. 

The  segregated  school  may  be  a  better  book  school 
but  it  is  a  poorer  life  school.  The  youth  who  is  taken 
thus  away  from  daily  association  with  girls  is  cheated 
out  of  his  best  time  and  opportunity  for  learning  how 
the  other  half  of  the  race  lives.  And  if  he  fails  now 
to  learn  from  the  great  book  of  experience,  from  inti- 
mate fellowship  with  them,  just  what  the  normal  be- 
haviour of  girls  is,  he  will  most  probably  always 
remain  weak  in  his  ability  to  understand  the  true  na- 
ture of  mature  woman — of  a  mother,  a  sister,  a  wife 
or  a  daughter. 

If,  in  truth,  "Man's  inhumanity  to  man  makes 
countless  thousands  mourn,"  so  may  it  be  said  that 
man's  inhumanity  to  woman  makes  countless  thou- 
sands wretched  and  miserable.  In  so  far  as  a  man 
is  unacquainted  with  the  peculiar  nature  and  disposi- 
tion of  womankind,  to  that  extent  he  is  unfitted  for 
the  duties  of  a  husband,  a  father  and  a  citizen. 

ALL  MUST  KNOW  ALL 

To  know  man  through  and  through  is  the  first  great 
duty  of  the  individual  to  himself  and  to  society.  But 
to  know  man  at  his  best  and  to  the  best  advantage  to 
the  learner  is  to  gain  each  necessary  part  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  man  at  the  particular  time  when  one's  interest 
in  that  part  is  at  its  height.  Early  childhood  is  the 
age  of  things.  The  learner  is  best  taught  through  his 
dealing  with  the  objects  and  instruments  which  relate 


ADOLESCENT  LOVE  89 

to  ordinary  work  and  welfare.  Pre-adolescence  is 
the  age  of  deeds,  especially  those  of  daring  and  hero- 
ism, and  the  eager  attention  is  now  directed  to  the 
scouting,  the  hunting  and  the  belligerent  aspects  of 
human  conduct.  Finally,  adolescence  is  the  age  of 
love  and  courting,  a  time  when  the  alert  young  mind 
is  easiest  moulded  by  a  study  of  all  the  forms  of 
human  behaviour  tinctured  with  romance. 

How  each  side  of  the  human  family  should  behave 
in  reference  to  the  other  side — how  a  man  in  every 
conceivable  situation  should  behave  toward  woman; 
and  conversely,  how  a  woman  should  behave  toward 
man — this  is  the  dominant  issue  during  a  brief  period 
of  every  young  person's  career.  And  the  free,  but 
always  safeguarded,  mingling  of  the  sexes  during 
adolescence,  is  the  only  way  whereby  society  may  be 
assured  of  the  benefits  of  this  happy  mutual  acquain- 
tance. 

THE    WHITE   SLAVE   AND   SAVAGERY 

Among  the  many  momentous  tasks  of  post-war  re- 
construction is  to  do  away  with  the  age-old  practice 
of  white  slavery.  And  the  first  important  step  in 
solution  of  this  world  problem  is  to  quit  dealing  with 
symptoms  and  to  take  up  real  causes.  To  imprison 
and  fine  and  otherwise  punish  men  for  their  attack  on 
the  virtue  of  women  and  to  continue  through  a  wrong 
policy  of  training  to  produce  men  who  harbour  a  be- 
lief in  man's  right  to  such  an  attack — so  long  as  it  is 
confined  to  a  certain  class — that  is  the  fundamental 
error.  The  world  is  crowded  full  of  men  who  com- 
placently accept  the  theory  of  "sexual  necessity"  and 


90      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

who  regard  it  as  necessary  for  the  detached  man  to 
hide  away  from  his  own  occasionally  in  tne  practice 
of  some  form  of  "white  slavery." 

Now  all  this  vile  mistreatment  of  woman  by  man 
dates  far  back  to  the  time  when  woman  was  regarded 
as  a  part  of  the  legitimate  spoils  of  war.  She  was 
then  mere  property.  And,  while  one  of  the  major 
belligerent  powers  in  the  recent  world  war  lapsed  into 
this  old  shocking  form  of  brutalism,  it  is  now  most 
cheering  to  observe  the  tendency  of  the  conquering 
nations  to  regard  even  the  material  spoils  given  up 
by  the  enemy  as  a  trust  fund  to  be  used  in  restoring 
the  world  to  its  lost  poise  and  supremacy.  This  higher 
regard  for  material  booty  implies  of  course  a  most 
tender  and  sympathetic  treatment  of  such  weak  and 
innocent  victims  of  the  war  as  women  and  children. 
To  treat  the  wives  and  sisters  of  a  fallen  foe  as  if  they 
were  the  members  of  one's  home  community  is  an 
epoch-making  event  in  the  history  of  all  warfare. 

But  the  deep-seated  cause  of  white  slavery  in  all  its 
forms  is  the  ordinary  man's  erroneous  opinion  of  the 
nature  of  woman  and  her  true  place  in  society.  Re- 
move this  state  of  ignorance  through  careful  and 
timely  processes  of  training  and  you  will  thus  remove 
man's  chief  crime  against  himself  and  against  the 
peace  and  well-being  of  mankind. 

Every  normal,  well-trained  man  is  naturally  a  lover 
of  all  womankind.  But  the  lover  is  never  a  despoiler ; 
he  is  always  a  defender.  If,  by  and  through  the 
natural  advantages  of  social  intermingling  as  outlined 
above,  the  youth  becomes  gradually  cognizant  of 
woman  as  a  full  half  of  the  human  family,  as  constant 


ADOLESCENT  LOVE  91 

and  equal  companion  of  man,  as  the  delicate  vessel 
into  which  the  Almighty  has  stored  up  a  vital  part 
of  the  rich  treasury  of  human  inheritance,  as  the 
potential  lover  and  patient  care-taker  of  innocent  child- 
hood— when  a  youth  once  acquires  these  significant 
interpretations  of  girlhood  and  womanhood  it  will  be 
quite  as  unthinkable  for  him  to  do  violence  to  some  one 
else's  sister — even  though  weak  and  wayward — as  to 
his  own. 


A  NEW  TYPE  OF  MANHOOD 

What  the  re-makers  of  society  must  therefore  plan 
for  is  a  generation  of  men  who  have  acquired  an  atti- 
tude of  gallantry  toward  womankind.  What  is  the 
real  value  of  having  peace  in  the  world,  with  all  its 
alleged  good-will  and  its  mountains  of  business  thrift 
and  enterprise,  so  long  as  woman  is  looked  upon  as 
the  proper  prey  of  man's  baser  passions? 


THE  NEW  MARRIAGE 

Our  ideal  of  Man  as  the  centre  of  the  universe  and 
of  all  things  worth  while  within  it,  is  both  masculine 
and  feminine.  It  implies  the  full  and  equal  right  of 
woman  to  develop  her  inherent  powers  along  with 
man's  and  each  equally  to  supplement  the  other.  It 
implies  the  incomplete  existence  of  the  one  without 
the  other,  and  the  full  knowledge  of  the  one  as  to 
what  constitutes  the  peculiar  inherent  nature  and  right 
of  the  other.  It  implies  a  careful  plan  of  guidance  of 
each  sex  while  passing  through  the  period  of  emo- 


92      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

tional  storm  in  relation  to  the  other,  until  a  set  of 
rational  life  habits  can  be  set  up. 

Guided  only  by  impulse  and  emotion  early  youth 
possesses  very  little  common  sense  on  the  question  of 
marriage.  Through  the  effort  of  the  various  educa- 
tional institutions,  society  must  learn  to  teach  its  young 
how  to  choose  a  life  mate,  and  by  all  fair  means  must 
hold  off  that  final  choice  till  emotional  prompting  is 
properly  balanced  with  adequate  experience  and  ra- 
tional judgment.  So  long  as  the  family  tie  is  weak 
and  the  general  status  of  the  family  insecure,  society 
at  large  can  at  best  make  progress  only  by  skips  and 
stops.  The  prospect  of  a  permanent  peace  for  the 
race  is  bound  up  with  the  prospect  of  a  steady-going 
and  happy  family  as  the  type  among  the  nations. 

Finally,  this  new  age  of  attempted  re-examination 
and  re-direction  of  Common  Man  calls  for  a  new  field 
of  educational  literature,  and  to  cover  it  a  set  of  texts 
which  would  accomplish  the  following: — 

1.  Explain  to  teachers  of  adolescents  how  they  may 
relate  all  the  lessons  of  the  schools  to  the  dominant 
romantic  interest  of  youth. 

2.  Explain  to  parents  how  they  may  best  treat  the 
love  affairs  of  their  young  sons  and  daughters  in  a 
sane  and  serious  manner. 

3.  Explain  to  social  workers  how  to  proceed  in  their 
effort  to  reunite  the  members  of  a  broken  family  and 
to  avoid  the  scandal  of  a  divorce. 

4.  Explain  to  statesmen  and  governing  bodies  how 
to  enact  measures  suited  to  promote  a  natural  and 
wholesome  relation  of  the  sexes  in  common  society. 

5.  Explain  to  world  builders  how  to  consider  all 


ADOLESCENT  LOVE  93 

mankind — including  the  feminine  elements  of  eternal 
and  inherent  human  nature — in  their  programme  of 
race  betterment. 

To  sum  it  all  up,  here  is  the  order  of  events  appli- 
cable to  the  text  of  the  present  discussion :  Adolescent 
love  is  very  animal-like,  seeking  directly  its  personal 
satisfaction.  Family  love  is  less  selfish  and  is  very 
human  in  its  relation  to  those  closest  of  kin.  Racial 
love  is  divine,  for  it  recognises  the  laws  of  God  as 
inherent  in  the  frame  of  Common  Man.  And  each 
of  these  is  an  epoch-making  movement  through  that 
chain  of  mighty  processes  which  finally  embodies  in 
man  some  of  the  attributes  of  Deity.  The  higher 
perfection  of  Man  on  the  earth  implies  a  guarantee 
that  his  forebears  shall  lead  him  patiently  and  faith- 
fully through  these  three  great  cycles  of  normal  human 
experience. 


IX 
RELIGION  AS  A  PART  OF  DEMOCRACY 

I,  a  member  of  a  regular,  orthodox,  Protestant 
church,  am  now  ready  to  worship  with  any  or  all  the 
religious  bodies  of  the  so-called  enlightened  world — 
with  Hebrew  or  Gentile,  with  Catholic  or  Protestant, 
with  Unitarian  or  Trinitarian,  with  Christian  Scientist 
or  Theosophist.  All  these  forms  of  religious  belief 
and  doctrine  are  very  dear  to  me,  but  the  worshippers 
themselves  are  more  so.  I  can  go  into  the  church 
or  temple  or  other  place  of  service  with  any  of  these 
and  worship  reverently.  I  am  ready,  too,  to  join 
them  all  in  a  sort  of  spiritual  federation. 

DEITY  IN  MAN 

I  worship  God  through  Man.  To  know  God  is  first 
to  know  Man  and  to  know  Man  is  to  worship  the 
Divinity  in  him.  Some  persons  are  inspired  to  wor> 
ship  through  the  majesty  of  the  mountains,  some 
through  the  terror  of  the  rolling  billows,  some  through 
the  mystery  of  the  starry  heavens,  and  some  through 
the  whisperings  of  the  subjective  spirit.  But  Man  is 
my  best  expression  of  Deity,  and  so  I  bow  reverently 
at  this  shrine. 

There  are  those  who  firmly  believe  that  Jesus  Christ 

94 


RELIGION  AS  PART  OF  DEMOCRACY      95 

was  divine.  Be  it  so.  I  do  not  deny  that,  for  he 
is  certainly  my  Master.  I  am  every  day  busy  going 
to  school  to  him.  His  figure  has  come  through  the 
recent  world  catastrophe  as  a  sort  of  Unshaken  Rock 
of  the  Ages.  But  I  am  here  arguing  for  the  divinity 
of  Man,  urging  that  he  embodies  certain  inherent  quak 
ities  which  are  eternal  and  infinite  and  which  lead  the 
mind  out  to  an  Unsearchable  First  Cause. 

Among  certain  sects  there  has  been  much  said  and 
written  about  "the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,"  "the 
sacredness  of  Holy  Writ,"  and  the  like.  With  those 
who  so  express  themselves  I  have  no  disagreement. 
Indeed,  I  admire  and  commend  them  for  the  practice. 
But  without  intending  to  detract  any  reverence  from 
the  Bible  I  am  ready  to  declare  that  the  common  child 
appeals  to  me  as  being  an  even  more  sacred  thing  than 
any  Bible  ever  written.  The  child  seems  to  come  as 
a  more  direct  expression  of  the  mind  and  handiwork 
of  Deity. 

THE  INFINITE  CHILD 

If  God  wrote  the  Holy  Word  and  gave  it  to  man, 
He  did  so  but  once  and  that  long  ago.  The  religious 
and  factional  quarrels  which  have  swept  over  the  pages 
of  the  Scriptures  during  past  centuries;  the  possible 
ignorance,  prejudice  and  superstition  of  the  many  in- 
terpreters and  translators  of  the  Bible  have  made  its 
exact  origin  and  authorship  a  matter  of  doubt  to  many. 
And  so  we  have  higher  criticism  and  predestination- 
ism  as  two  extremes  of  attitude  toward  the  meaning  of 
this  body  of  sacred  literature. 

But  I  am  in  hearty  sympathy  with  both  of  these  ex- 


96      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

tremes  and  with  all  who  come  between  them.  I  ob- 
serve them  all  as  engaged  in  an  earnest  and  honest 
endeavour  to  give  expression  to  one  of  the  eternal 
inherent  elements  of  Great  Common  Man.  And  I  see 
in  their  final  decision  a  colouring  of  acceptance — a 
difference  of  interpretation — which  points  back  to  a 
radical  difference  in  early  environment. 

But  the  human  infant  was  not  merely  sent  into  the 
world  once,  ages  ago,  for  the  same  general  pattern 
of  him  continues  to  be  sent.  If  we  misjudge  him 
once,  there  he  is  again,  and  we  may  have  another  true 
trial.  If  we  spoil  him  during  one  generation,  Divinity 
sends  us  another  mighty  troop  of  him  in  order  that 
we  may  further  inquire  into  his  unsullied  eternal 
nature. 

AT  THE  SHRINE  OF  CHILDHOOD 

And  so  I  worship  at  the  shrine  of  childhood.  It 
is  not  this  assembly  of  flesh  and  blood  and  nerves 
which  especially  inspires  me,  but  rather  this  eternal 
pattern  which  is  forced  into  the  world  and  which  em- 
bodies potentially  the  sum-total  of  all  the  highest 
activities  of  which  mortal  man  is  capable.  It  is  the 
eternal  and  infinite  possibilities  within  this  innocent 
little  creature  which  fill  me  with  awe  and  reverence. 

To  me,  it  seems  impossible  to  know  God  until  we 
first  know  Man.  And  just  here  it  would  appear  that 
the  fundamental  religious  blunder  of  the  ages  has  been 
the  disposition  to  try  to  know  God  direct.  Men  dur- 
ing past  ages  everywhere  have  set  up  their  own  ab- 
stract conception  of  Deity  and  quarrelled  and  fought 
over  that.  Deity  as  defined  by  many  thinkers  has  thus 


RELIGION  AS  PART  OF  DEMOCRACY      97 

been  set  apart  from,  or  over  against,  the  human; 
and  has  left  mystery  and  superstition  to  fill  up  the  gap. 
But  if  we  should  all  come  to  the  feet  of  the  little 
child  as  the  beginning  of  our  worship  and  as  the  most 
refined,  concrete  expression  of  the  Mind  of  God,  I  am 
certain  that  our  religious  practice  and  worship  would 
not  diverge  widely  during  a  lifetime. 

THE  CHILD  AND  RECONSTRUCTION 

What  we  are  seeking  here  is  a  religious  basis  for 
the  reconstruction  of  society.  The  general  purpose  is 
to  show  how  to  know  man  by  reproducing  him 
through  the  medium  of  our  individual  experience. 
That  is,  the  only  apparent  way  to  understand  the  na- 
ture and  disposition  of  Common  Man — and  thus  wend 
our  way  toward  democracy — is  for  one  to  have  passed 
through  all  the  epochs  of  growth  and  unfoldment 
called  for  by  our  common  inherent  nature.  To  repeat 
what  has  been  more  than  once  stated  above,  to  know 
humankind  is  to  participate  with  others  in  all  the 
larger  inherent  lines  of  human  conduct — to  play,  to 
work,  to  contend,  to  romance,  to  worship,  and  so  on, 
with  the  common  crowd. 


YOUR  OWN  SALVATION 

"Work  out  your  own  salvation  with  fear  and  trem- 
bling,"  through  the  great  transitional  eras  of  exist- 
ence as  given  above ;  and  thus,  in  a  reverent  sense,  be- 
come your  own  saviour.  When  you  arrive  at  the 
middle-teen  age,  and  the  instinct  for  religion  has  its 


98      MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

first  awakening,  then  begins  your  own  salvation — your 
new  form  of  self-discovery — through  a  more  active 
religious  experience. 

And  so,  one  finds  God  by  first  becoming  Man.  He 
struggles  on  through  all  the  racial  forms  of  endeavour 
and  finally  discovers  the  essence  of  the  entire  human 
family  as  embodied  in  himself;  and  he  observes  all 
this  as  the  highest  expression  of  the  Infinite  Mind  here 
on  the  earth.  The  normal  individual  thus  comes 
into  the  world  as  a  new-born  infant  and  yet  without 
knowledge  of  his  eternal  divine  nature.  This  knowl- 
edge comes  to  him  slowly  as  he  passes  through  the 
racial  experiences  and  finally  he  discovers  God  in 
Man  and  is  ready  to  worship. 

RELIGION  AND  EDUCATION 

For  ages  there  has  been  trouble  between  the  church 
and  the  school;  and  for  a  long  time,  previous  to  the 
Renaissance,  the  church  refused  to  permit  the  school 
to  exist  independently.  This  prejudice  against  free 
education  marked  the  ages  of  the  worship  of  creed 
and  dogma  and  of  the  early  supermanism  when  or- 
dinary man  was  not  regarded  as  capable  of  thinking 
for  himself.  The  quarrel  between  the  church  and  the 
school  is  slowly  waning  but  it  will  not  disappear  en- 
tirely so  long  as  religion  is  regarded  as  something 
merely  to  be  taught  rather  than  something  to  be  ac- 
quired through  experience.  During  recent  years  the 
public  school  has  lost  a  part  of  its  fear  and  has  made 
some  weak  attempts  to  introduce  religion  into  its 
course.  But  this  has  brought  the  learner  only  a  sort 


RELIGION  AS  PART  OF  DEMOCRACY      99 

of  pale  abstract  of  all  the  more  common  religious 
dogma. 

There  is  one  method  whereby  religion  may  be  safely 
taught  in  the  schools,  and  that  is  through  the  psycho- 
logic and  sociologic  approach  outlined  above.  For  the 
child  to  study  the  great  laws  of  nature  as  expressed 
in  the  living  things  of  the  world,  the  biologic  sciences 
in  outline;  and  then  to  inquire  into  the  greater  laws 
of  nature,  as  shown  forth  in  his  own  individual-racial 
unfoldment — that  is  to  prepare  him  for  worship. 
This  experience  of  rinding  the  laws  of  God  written 
within  one's  own  being  comes  to  the  individual  nor- 
mally during  middle  adolescence,  when  he  is  wont  to 
manifest  his  first  emotional  interest  in  religion. 

After  the  ordinary  young  person  has  proceeded  nor- 
mally through  the  racial  epochs  inherent  within  him, 
as  suggested  above,  until  he  has  passed  into  the  storm 
of  religious  emotionalism,  I  care  not  what  church  or 
creed  he  may  happen  to  select  as  his  best  instrument 
of  religious  practice.  He  now  belongs  to  the  great 
heart  of  humanity  and  humanity  belongs  to  him.  He 
has  found  the  Christ  in  himself,  the  God  in  his  own 
being,  and  he  naturally  looks  upward  and  onward  into 
the  Infinite  for  the  ultimate  object  of  his  worship. 

RELIGION  NOT  A  SAVIOUR 

Another  historic  error  of  the  church,  and  a  present 
stumbling  block  to  the  re-direction  of  society,  is  the 
assumption  that  religion  alone  is  a  means  of  human 
salvation.  During  the  recent  war,  did  we  not  behold 
intelligent  men  on  both  sides  praying  to  what  seemed 


ioo    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

to  be  the  same  God  to  give  them  the  victory?  But 
this  double-headed  deity  to  which  they  prayed  was 
merely  a  part  of  the  tragedy  of  a  dual  humanity  which 
split  the  believers  asunder.  That  is,  the  basis  of  the 
conflict  was  not  a  different  opinion  as  to  which  side 
God  favoured  but  a  fundamental  difference  of  view 
as  to  what  Man  is. 

Now,  as  we  trace  this  age-old  quarrel  over  the  place 
of  religion  in  human  existence  and  the  possible  favour- 
itism of  God,  we  note  the  first  false  step  as  that  of 
making  a  sort  of  saviour  or  fetish  out  of  religion 
itself.  Religion  was  taken  out  of  its  normal  place 
in  human  existence,  and  out  of  its  regular  order  in 
the  course  of  natural  development :  and  some  one  pro- 
claimed, behold,  this  will  save  you. 

Now  religion  will  not  save  a  man  any  more  than 
will  work.  Religion  is  no  more  a  means  of  salvation 
of  the  human  soul  than  is  vocational  occupation  or 
the  experience  of  rearing  a  family.  In  other  words, 
the  idea  here  advanced  is  that  the  whole  man  must 
be  saved  together,  or  none.  No  one  part  of  him — not 
even  religion — taken  alone,  will  save  him.  Religion  is 
one  of  the  group  of  co-ordinate  elements  in  the  superb 
treasury  of  human  inheritance.  It  is  neither  greater 
nor  less  than  any  of  the  other  elements.  To  stand  it 
on  a  pinnacle  by  itself,  as  many  religious  zealots  have 
done;  to  regard  religion  as  a  thing  apart  from  the 
other  human  dispositions  and  a  quality  which  Deity 
specially  favours — this  is  not  to  save  man  but  to  lose 
a  greater  part  of  him. 


RELIGION  AS  PART  OF  DEMOCRACY    101 


MAN  WILL  DECIDE  IT 

Salvation  is  to  live  a  relatively  complete  normal 
life,  through  all  the  human  epochs  of  earthly  exist- 
ence, and  finally  to  discover  the  best  exemplification  of 
God  as  hidden  in  the  laws  of  Man.  I  see  no  hope  of 
the  historic  quarrel  between  churches  and  creeds  other 
than  to  take  Man  as  potentially  embodied  in  the  un- 
folding personality  as  the  universal  creed.  If  the 
religious  instinct  is  permitted  to  take  its  turn  in 
awakening — just  as  we  usually  permit  the  sex  instinct 
to  wait  till  adolescence  for  its  orientation — then  the 
differences  in  creed  and  religious  doctrine  will  soften 
into  a  pleasing  variety  of  personal  view  point. 
After  that,  the  fear  that  some  particular  creed  will 
overrun  the  earth  will  no  longer  exist,  as  all  creeds 
will  grow  out  of  the  same  basic  programme  of  ex- 
periences. 

No  one  is  perfect,  no  life  so  complete  but  that  it  is 
a  fragment  of  the  divine  perfection  of  Man.  So  long 
as  the  race  lives  we  shall  continue  to  make  blunders 
in  our  industry,  in  our  social  welfare,  in  our  family 
life,  and  the  like.  Similarly,  we  shall  go  on  com- 
mitting errors  in  our  religious  life.  But,  under  the 
theory  of  human  progress  here  outlined,  the  most  sig- 
nificant fact  remains  that  we  shall  have  the  unspoiled 
pattern  of  the  Child  Eternal  to  go  back  to  for  cor- 
rection. To  lose  sight  of  this  point  is  to  lose  the 
substance  of  our  entire  argument. 


MA2xT  ^HD  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 


SEPARATE   "iSMS" 


The  chief  objection  to  socialism,  industrialism,  the 
separate  church  movement,  and  the  other  "isms"  is 
that  they  lack  many  of  the  elements  of  complete  hu- 
manism. They  are  attempts  to  make  one  part  of 
Man  save  all  the  parts  of  him.  Any  one  of  these 
"isms"  may  seem  for  the  time  of  its  ascendency  to  be 
leading  mankind  out  of  the  wilderness  of  confusion 
about  himself,  but  in  the  end  they  fail  and  something 
else  has  to  be  started.  As  surely  as  we  advance  some 
part  of  human  nature  —  the  industrial,  the  social,  the 
religious  —  beyond  the  other  parts,  the  elements  neg- 
lected begin  to  starve  and  cry  out  for  nurture.  Re- 
call the  history  of  civilisation  for  evidence  of  the  fact 
that  mankind  has  surged  impetuously  through  all 
these  forms  of  searching  for  his  own  soul,  only  to 
drop  each  after  it  failed  to  satisfy. 

Comte  was  right  in  his  ideal  of  a  religion  of  Man 
if  he  had  not  lost  sight  of  God  and  failed  to  explain 
the  aspect  of  Man  which  alone  is  worthy  of  worship  ; 
that  is,  the  eternal  nature  which  comes  to  earth  through 
the  infant  life  and  expands  into  the  ordinary  human 
personality. 

AN  OPEN  CHALLENGE 

This  discussion  is  not  to  be  construed  as  an  attack 
on  any  existent  form  of  religion.  It  is  not  a  denial  of 
the  truth  as  alleged  of  any  religious  creed.  It  is  not 
a  denial  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  or  of  the 
divinity  of  Christ.  It  is  not  a  denial  of  the  right 


RELIGION  AS  PART  OF  DEMOCRACY    103 

of  every  one  to  worship  God  in  accordance  with  the 
dictates  of  his  own  conscience.  It  is  not  a  denial  of 
the  fact  that  common  worshippers  as  they  assemble  in 
their  respective  churches  obtain  untold  good  and  de- 
lightful inspiration  out  of  their  acts  of  divine  service. 

This  discussion,  on  the  other  hand,  is  meant  as  a 
challenge  for  the  adherents  of  all  creeds  to  come  to- 
gether for  a  while  and  examine  the  inherent  nature  of 
Man  as  it  unfolds  during  a  complete  normal  life,  for 
new  light  and  possibly  a  new  point  of  departure  for  all 
religions.  It  is  a  challenge  to  those  who  pretend  to 
be  the  appointed  leaders  in  the  reconstruction  of  civili- 
sation to  accept  this  common  human  nature — easily 
accessible  by  study  of  it — as  a  possible  basis  upon 
which  to  unify  and  solidify  all  the  important  elements 
of  human  progress.  And  in  this  particular  chapter, 
it  is  a  challenge  to  all  the  would-be  guardians  of 
human  destiny  to  see  to  it  that  the  entire  inherent 
nature  of  Man — including  the  religious  element — and 
not  certain  parts  of  it,  shall  have  full  consideration  in 
the  proposed  outline  of  world  progress. 

If  you  respond  here  with  the  statement  that  many 
individuals  and  some  entire  peoples  seem  to  manifest 
little  or  no  religious  desire  I  will  reply  that  such  per- 
sons very  probably  never  got  that  far  with  their  un- 
foldment.  As  matters  are  now  we  do  not  pretend  to 
develop  all  personalities  through  all  the  racial  instincts. 
We  halt  the  great  masses  early,  put  them  to  work  "to 
make  a  living'*  and  thus  force  upon  them  permanent 
under-development. 

Finally — speaking  in  the  first  person  only  to  illus- 
trate more  easily  the  point  of  view  desired  for  all 


104    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

mankind — finally,  when  I  come  to  a  knowledge  of  my 
full  self  through  racial  experience  and  recognise  God 
as  expressing  Himself  in  the  eternal  nature  of  the 
common  individual,  I  wish  to  be  able  to  look  farther 
on  and  behold  as  it  were  the  face  of  the  Eternal  Father 
Himself.  I  wish  to  feel  His  presence  within  my  being 
as  a  personal  relationship  while  I  commune  with  his 
Infinite  Spirit  with  all  the  emotional  warmth  and 
sympathy  known  to  the  most  intimate  human  friend- 
ship. 


HEALTH  AS  AN  ELEMENT  OF  CIVILISATION 

This  dawn  of  a  new  civilisation  has  brought  a 
charming  vision  of  the  possibilities  of  a  resurrected 
physical  life  for  all  the  people.  The  idea  is  this :  Dur- 
ing his  growing  years  the  child  possesses  the  same 
divine  right  to  good  health  as  to  his  full  share  of 
food,  shelter  and  schooling.  And,  like  the  general 
education  of  the  young,  the  item  of  health  is  to  be 
both  guaranteed  and  required  by  public  authority. 

NEW  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE 

Like  the  Golden  Rule  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence never  remains  a  fixed  and  permanently  defin- 
able fact.  Each  of  these  grows  in  its  significance  and 
changes  in  its  application  to  every  new  age.  "The 
right  to  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,"  is 
now  about  to  include  the  right  of  the  individual  to 
be  well  and  strong  physically  in  so  far  as  public  care 
and  service  can  bring  this  important  matter  about. 

It  required  many  generations  here  in  America  for 
the  people  to  reach  the  conclusion  that  the  child  in- 
herits a  right  to  an  education  and  that  the  matter  must 
not  be  determined  by  the  opinion  or  convenience  of  the 
parent  or  guardian.  During  all  this  long  period  of 

105 


io6    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

struggle  for  human  right  and  higher  light  on  the  true 
way  of  life,  the  parent  was  permitted  to  say,  "This 
is  my  child.  I  shall  do  as  I  please  about  sending  him 
to  school."  But  now  the  people  say,  "This  is  also 
our  child  and  he  must  be  educated,  both  for  his  own 
sake  and  for  ours." 

For  a  while  the  individual  parent  resisted  the  idea 
of  compulsory  education  of  his  child  as  an  interference 
with  his  "personal  liberty."  But  now  the  rule  is  ac- 
cepted everywhere  as  a  foregone  conclusion  and  a 
righteous  measure.  So  with  the  problem  of  health, 
which  is  indeed  an  aspect  of  public  education.  Under 
the  new  order,  just  now  arising,  the  health  of  the 
child  is  not  to  remain  uncertain  or  jeopardised  by  the 
mere  opinion  or  whim  of  the  individual  parent.  The 
inherent  right  of  the  common  child  to  rugged  health 
and  the  proprietary  right  of  the  people  to  enjoy  the 
benefits  therefrom — these  are  to  prevail,  and  public 
health  measures  are  to  be  ranked  co-ordinately  with 
public  school  measures. 

HEALTH  AS  INHERITANCE 

But  the  radical  and  far-reaching  change  in  public 
opinion,  and  the  one  which  over-shadows  all  other 
arguments  in  behalf  .  of  the  new  public  health  pro- 
gramme, is  herein  outlined.  Health  is  potential  rather 
than  real.  The  ordinary  child  is  neither  sound  nor 
diseased  inherently,  just  as  he  is  neither  good  nor  bad 
morally  till  conditions  make  him  one  or  the  other.  In 
the  vast  majority  of  normal  children  there  is  at  birth 


HEALTH  AND  CIVILISATION          107 

a  latent  possibility  of  physical  well-being  and  likewise 
a  potentiality  of  weakness  and  disease. 

The  idea  here  in  mind  must  be  made  clear  even  at 
the  expense  of  tedious  repetition,  for  upon  its  meaning 
seem  to  hinge  the  vast  possibilities  of  a  future  pro- 
gramme for  the  health  of  society.  Under  the  former 
rule  the  tendency  has  been  to  regard  the  health  of  the 
individual  too  much  as  a  matter  of  family  breeding. 
Those  whose  children  were  strong  and  well  were  listed 
as  "sound  parental  stock,"  and  those  whose  children 
were  sickly,  as  inherently  diseased.  But  a  radical 
change  has  come.  It  has  been  found  that  a  child 
sound  at  birth  may  become  permanently  diseased 
through  neglect  of  a  certain  set  of  controllable  en- 
vironmental factors;  and  that  a  child  seemingly  weak 
at  birth  may  be  made  strong  and  rugged  through  the 
strict  enforcement  of  certain  well  known  measures. 

Wherefore,  it  is  now  being  accepted  as  a  new  rule 
for  civilisation  that  the  health  of  the  ordinary  child 
is  not  necessarily  real  but  merely  potential,  that  health 
is  a  thing  to  be  obtained  through  right  care  and  prac- 
tice just  as  is  the  case  with  morals  and  civic  righteous- 
ness. In  short,  the  situation  as  now  understood 
seems  to  present  itself  to  the  public  mind  as  follows : 
The  health  of  the  individual  is  merely  a  latent  inher- 
itance from  the  common  race  stock.  If  you  would 
have  it  as  a  fact,  then,  work  for  it  accordingly.  You 
may  make  physical  health  a  beautiful  and  radiant 
affair  if  you  are  willing  to  pay  the  price  of  its  accom- 
plishment. Good  health  for  practically  all  the  people, 
and  that  as  a  grand  public  and  private  achievement — 


io8    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

such  is  the  stirring  vision  of  which  the  public  mind  is 
now  getting  its  first  alluring  glimpse. 


HAS  THE  EUGENIST  FAILED? 

The  modern  eugenist  has  led  us  far  into  the  wilder- 
ness, but  he  is  now  coming  back.  He  has  pursued  a 
too  negative  programme  of  research  and  has  found 
too  much  supposedly  inherent  disease,  deformity  and 
degeneracy.  As  a  result  of  this  and  other  one-sided 
quests  a  social,  and  even  a  racial  pessimism  has  be- 
clouded our  vision  and  misguided  much  of  our  effort 
at  self -improvement.  But  under  the  extreme  neces- 
sity of  recruiting  a  large  sound  army  and  in  the  midst 
of  the  terrible  death-dealing  experiences  of  the  war 
the  inherent  health  and  physical  superbness  of  the 
common  race  stock  has  been  re-discovered.  We  have 
found  that  this  inherent  health  and  potential  strength 
is  a  common  racial  treasury  to  be  brought  out  only 
through  wise  effort  and  that  this  positive  side  of  hu- 
man inheritance  far  outweighs  the  negative  side. 

The  eugenist  has  been  working  on  the  negative  side. 
He  has  played  up  his  conclusions  before  the  public 
mind  and  made  the  morbid  appear  as  the  rule  instead 
of  the  important  exception,  which  it  is.  He  needs  to 
trace  out  more  of  the  overwhelming  number  of  posi- 
tive and  wholesome  race  factors  and  give  these  a  wide 
publicity.  It  is  true,  to  a  certain  extent,  that  "blood 
tells.'*  Some  diseases  and  some  malformations  seem 
to  be  transmissible,  but  these  exceptional  matters  of 
weakness  will  tend  to  disappear  as  we  proceed  with  a 
sane,  constructive  programme  of  public  health  meas- 


HEALTH  AND  CIVILISATION         109 

ures.  As  soon  as  the  people  at  large  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  general  plan  and  the  purpose  of  the 
health  movement  they  will  gradually  work  out  their 
own  physical  salvation. 

Wherefore,  like  the  ore  which  conies  out  of  the 
mine  and  must  pass  through  many  processes  before  it 
is  ready  for  the  open  market,  so  is  the  crude  treasury 
of  physical  and  spiritual  wealth  which  comes  into  the 
world  through  the  instrumentality  of  common  child- 
hood. All  these  elements  must  be  brought  out  through 
wise  effort  and  passed  through  the  crucible  of  extreme 
care  and  safe-guarding  before  they  are  ready  for  pub- 
lic service.  Thus  we  have  a  sort  of  continued  self- 
realisation  of  health  inheritance  as  a  part  of  the  com- 
plete race  experience. 


THE  EVERLASTING  TIE 

Many  writers  seem  not  to  have  discovered  the  real 
tie  that  binds  a  people  in  a  close  bond  of  fellowship  and 
mutual  good-will.  It  is  not  so  called  common  blood 
and  racial  kinship  but  common  experience  of  trial  and 
tribulation,  of  suffering  and  sorrow,  of  treasure  and 
triumph.  We  should  become  cold  and  inhuman  indeed 
did  we  not  have  to  assist  one  another  through  the  com- 
mon racial  experiences.  We  should  soon  lose  sight  of 
the  needs  of  the  young  and  ignore  their  resultant  suf- 
fering, were  we  not  compelled  by  force  of  circum- 
stances to  assist  them  constantly  with  the  problems  of 
their  existence.  So,  a  Wise  Providence  has  placed  be- 
fore us  the  never-ending  task  of  assisting  the  young  to 
be  born  and  to  struggle  through  the  manifoldness  of 


no    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

experience  out  of  which  the  full-blown  human  person- 
ality can  be  evolved. 

And,  within  this  task  of  helping  all  the  children  to 
grow  up,  there  lies  the  plain  public  duty  herein  advo- 
cated, the  duty  of  assisting  the  young  to  a  full  realisa- 
tion of  his  potential  health.  We  may  at  first  shrink 
from  this  call  to  service,  but  once  it  is  faithfully  an- 
swered, we  shall  find  the  sympathetic  cord  which 
binds  one  generation  to  the  next. 

COMPULSORY  HEALTH 

Thirty-seven  and  a  half  per  cent,  of  all  the  children 
born  in  Great  Britain  are  dead  from  various  causes — 
mostly  preventable — before  they  reach  the  age  of  fif- 
teen. Thirty-five  per  cent,  of  the  first  three  million 
men  which  America  examined  for  service  in  the  great 
war  were  found  to  be  physically  unfit.  The  chief 
items  of  rejection  referred  to  eyes,  teeth,  heart,  feet, 
hernia,  underweight — nearly  all  matters  of  easy  pre- 
vention if  treated  in  time.  Repeated  surveys  among 
school  children  have  revealed  the  fact  that  only  a 
small  percentage  happen  to  combine  in  their  make-up 
all  the  factors  of  natural  unaided  good  health,  that 
the  great  majority  suffer  from  a  list  of  minor  ailments, 
any  one  of  which  through  neglect  may  become  a 
chronic  interference  with  ultimate  good  citizenship. 
Eye-strain,  adenoids,  bad  diet,  under-nourishment, 
nerve  disorders,  and  the  like — perhaps  ninety-five  per 
cent,  remediable — these  are  the  first  great  stumbling 
blocks  to  a  high  and  happy  state  of  civilisation.  These 
also  indicate  the  first  and  fundamental  duty  of  any 


HEALTH  AND  CIVILISATION          in 

municipality  or  commonwealth  to  its  members  as  being 
the  promotion  of  a  strong  and  aggressive  programme 
of  sound  good  health  for  all. 

We  are  most  certainly  approaching  a  policy  of  com- 
pulsory health  education.  In  the  old  school  the  delin- 
quent was  the  child  who  quit.  Now  the  delinquent 
is  the  parent  who  fails  to  send  him.  Formerly  sick- 
ness among  children  was  a  sort  of  will-of-God  charge- 
able to  no  one.  Now  the  illness  of  the  child  is  about 
to  be  checked  up  to  the  authorities  who  are  responsible 
for  the  common  weal.  The  commonwealth  is  the  com- 
mon health,  and  for  the  sake  of  this  treasury  of  com- 
mon goods  the  common  individual  must  be  required 
to  obtain  the  best  possible  health  for  himself  and  the 
members  of  his  family,  and  preserve  it  so. 


PUBLIC  SCHOOL  ENLISTMENT 

Granting  first  of  all  the  right  of  the  individual  par- 
ent to  determine  the  school  of  healing  and  the  prac- 
titioner whereto  his  child  is  to  be  taken  for  treatment, 
the  public  is  getting  ready  to  demand  a  physical  ex- 
amination of  all  pupils  at  the  time  of  their  annual 
enrolment  in  the  school,  and  as  much  oftener  as  public 
safety  seems  to  demand.  The  physical  condition  of 
every  child  will  be  listed  on  a  record  card,  with  full 
recommendation  and  request  for  treatment.  The  re- 
quest will  perhaps  avoid  prescriptions  and  will  assume 
merely  a  demand  that  the  parent  attend  at  once  to 
the  needs  of  the  case  in  question  and  be  able  to  show 
reasonable  results.  In  order  to  avoid  the  possibility 
of  favouritism  of  any  particular  school  of  medicine  or 


ii2    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

healing  there  should  be  in  many  cases  of  disease — 
and  doubtless  there  will  be  permitted — an  option  be- 
tween a  free  public  clinic  and  private  treatment  by 
the  family  physician. 

For  the  sake  of  the  individual  and  for  its  own  wel- 
fare public  authority  must  go  further.  It  must  attack 
the  ailments  of  children  before  the  little  ones  are  old 
enough  to  enter  school  and  clear  out  disease  and  in- 
sanitation  in  every  place  wherein  these  may  be  found. 
Whenever  the  people  themselves  once  inaugurate  this 
aggressive  measure  of  early  prevention  of  disease  they 
will  quickly  learn  how  to  accede  to  its  demands  and 
even  to  give  it  hearty  support. 

ROOM  FOR  ALL  SCHOOLS 

Since  medicine  and  healing  are  not  as  yet  standard- 
ised as  exact  sciences,  I  hold  to  the  view  that  every 
form  of  treatment,  new  and  old,  should — with  some 
cautions  and  provisions — be  given  its  chance.  During 
the  world  war  all  the  great  religious  bodies — many  of 
them  hitherto  bitterly  in  conflict  one  with  another — 
were  invited  to  come  in  and  offer  their  several  forms 
of  ministry.  The  trial  worked  charmingly;  and  as 
a  result  these  spiritual  foes  have  come  closer  together 
than  ever  before.  So,  I  should  say  to  all  the  "pathies" 
in  medicine  and  healing,  "Come  on  in  and  do  your 
part.  Only  you  must  work  together  in  a  team  and 
supplement  one  another.  Where  one  fails  the  other 
may  succeed.  None  of  you  has  the  whole  truth  about 
healing,  yet  each  of  you  may  have  at  least  one  valuable 


HEALTH  AND  CIVILISATION         113 

truth.     Come  on  in  and  join  hands  and  hearts  in  the 
service  of  the  common  good." 

And  in  this  connection,  it  must  be  urged  that  the 
time  has  now  come  for  us  to  take  the  administration 
of  the  public  health  out  of  the  hands  of  partisan  spe- 
cialists and  place  it  in  charge  of  wise  and  broad- 
minded  laymen — those  who  will  give  every  school  of 
health  treatment  a  fair  test  as  to  merit  and  results, 
and  who  will  render  on  the  basis  of  this  a  programme 
of  guidance  to  the  public. 


LEAVES  OF  HEALING 

As  exemplified  by  the  grand  health  programme  con- 
ducted by  the  Red  Cross  during  the  war  one  may  catch 
a  vision  of  a  possible  world-wide  crusade  for  the  com- 
bined physical  and  spiritual  healing  of  the  nations  of 
the  earth.  When  the  American  Red  Cross  hurried 
into  the  hungry  and  disease-ridden  back  areas  of 
France  with  its  food  and  health  for  the  starving 
women  and  children  the  heart  of  that  suffering  nation 
was  deeply  touched.  Not  only  were  the  emaciated 
mothers  loud  and  continuous  in  their  thanksgiving 
and  praise  for  the  generous  relief  which  America  had 
brought,  but  stout-hearted  and  war-worn  Frenchmen 
far  out  in  the  trenches  burst  into  convulsions  of  weep- 
ing upon  hearing  this  strange  piece  of  epoch-making 
news. 

And  so,  while  rivers  of  blood  of  the  heroes  slain 
were  flowing  down  to  the  sea  and  men  along  the  battle- 
lines  were  skulking  under  cover  to  strike  one  another 
down  like  midnight  assassins,  God  was  forcing  a  new 


114    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

way  of  ministry  among  the  innocent,  suffering  human- 
ity back  in  the  homes  of  the  warriors.  With  tears  and 
tenderness  the  Red  Cross  continued  on  its  heavenly 
mission  bringing  health  and  healing  and  spiritual  com- 
fort for  the  innocent  and  helpless  victims  of  the  war. 
Without  including  the  immeasurable  blessings  of  relief 
and  succour  which  it  carried  to  the  wounded  soldiers, 
the  account  of  its  ministry  to  the  women  and  children 
back  home  will  go  down  in  history  as  one  of  the 
brightest  pages  in  the  history  of  human  welfare. 


A  VAST  HEALTH  CRUSADE 

And  now  we  come  upon  a  most  promising  and  far- 
reaching  vision  with  which  the  re-makers  of  civilisa- 
tion might  well  be  inspired.  It  is  this :  To  unite  their 
efforts  and  organise  their  forces  on  a  gigantic  scale 
for  the  purpose  of  conducting  a  health  crusade  to  all 
the  war-torn  peoples  of  Europe  and,  incidentally,  to 
all  the  world.  The  best  work  undertaken  by  the 
church  missionary  societies  in  foreign  lands  during  the 
past  generation — a  vast  work  which  has  never  received 
half  its  deserved  praise  and  credit — the  best  work  done 
by  these  bodies  has  been  that  of  a  combined  pro- 
gramme of  health,  sanitation,  general  education  and 
spiritual  nurture. 

But  this  wise  and  generous  conception  of  missionary 
health  service  is  too  big  an  undertaking  to  be  turned 
over  to  a  few  struggling  church  societies.  It  should 
be  immediately  taken  up  by  the  great  and  enlightened 
nations  as  part  of  a  mighty  scheme  of  regenerating  and 
redeeming  mankind.  Every  item  of  equipment  and 


HEALTH  AND  CIVILISATION          115 

every  dollar  of  the  cost  should  be  charged  to  the  na- 
tions in  the  compact  and  their  efforts  should  proceed 
along  the  lines  followed  by  the  American  Red  Cross 
service  in  France,  as  sketched  above. 

If  there  could  be  conducted  among  the  war-depleted 
nations  of  Europe  a  vast  missionary  health  crusade  as 
here  suggested  the  hearts  of  the  people  everywhere 
would  be  melted  with  sympathy  and  tender  regard. 
The  mission  should  proceed  itself  with  careful  propa- 
ganda and  its  offerings  should  be  absolutely  free  for 
the  taking  to  all  of  the  former  friend  and  foe  alike. 
Its  motto  of  service  should  be,  in  the  phrase  of  the 
Great  Master  Teacher,  "Whosoever  will  may  come," 
and  yet  no  one  should  be  compelled  to  partake  of  the 
proffered  benefit. 

By  thus  first  saving  the  bodies  of  the  wretched  and 
disease-ridden  people  wherever  found,  the  soul's  sal- 
vation would  become  a  natural  sequence.  Touched 
by  the  generosity  and  the  magnanimity  of  their  bene- 
factors, and  reassured  of  the  absence  of  any  selfish  or 
ulterior  purpose,  the  hearts  of  those  ministered  unto 
would  be  softened  and  they  would  naturally  desire  a 
spiritual  fellowship  with  the  missionaries.  What  a 
healing  for  the  war-sick  millions,  what  a  balm  for  the 
gaping  wounds  of  the  former  belligerents,  what  a 
blessing  to  the  unnumbered  generations  yet  to  be  born 
on  the  earth,  if  only  the  powerful  governments  re- 
cently associated  as  the  Allied  powers  should  see  fit 
to  turn  over  a  part  of  the  mighty  accumulations  of 
war  machinery  for  a  world-wide  mission  to  carry 
health  and  spiritual  healing  to  the  bleeding  heart  of  the 
millions  of  the  needy  wherever  found ! 


n6    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

Finally,  the  great  health  crusade  must  have  its  more 
intensive  counterpart  here  at  home.  If  we  may  judge 
by  the  humble  confessions  of  the  entire  medical  fra- 
ternity as  voiced  at  a  recent  national  meeting  at  Chi- 
cago, medicine  was  never  less  sanguine  of  its  ability  to 
cope  with  disease  by  means  of  merely  curative  mea- 
sures. The  influenza  epidemic  seemed  to  baffle  the 
best  skill  of  all  the  schools  of  medicine  and  to  confuse 
all  their  once  cherished  methods.  However,  there  was 
perhaps  never  as  to-day  so  hearty  agreement  among 
all  schools  of  healing  as  to  the  value  of  clinical  ex- 
aminations and  records  of  the  physical  conditions 
of  all  children;  and  as  to  the  value  of  general  team 
work  in  regard  to  preventive  and  prophylactic  health 
measures. 

So,  the  motto  of  the  new  democratic  health  crusade 
here  in  America  should  be :  A  complete,  systematic 
and  continuous  system  of  helping  all  the  young  to 
realise  their  entire  potential  inheritance  of  health  and 
physical  well-being. 


XI 

A  CHANGED  CONCEPTION  OF  LOYALTY 

The  thought  atmosphere  is  now  vibrant  with  a  new 
ideal  of  patriotism — a  form  which  implies  a  readjust- 
ment and  a  strengthening  of  the  loyalty  of  lesser 
degree — and  its  significant  watchword  is  loyalty  to 
Man.  The  rights  of  the  whole  of  humanity  are  para- 
mount to  those  of  any  nation  of  human  beings.  A 
deeper  understanding  of  the  universal  heritage  within 
Common  Man  is  now  the  order  of  the  day  and  it 
promises  mighty  things  for  the  future  of  the  race. 

The  world  war  has  thrown  us  all  back  upon  our- 
selves for  a  new  conception  of  loyalty.  That  magic 
word,  patriotism,  as  formerly  understood,  is  now 
under  sharp  scrutiny.  Or,  at  least,  its  real  signifi- 
cance is  being  consciously  reorganised  in  the  minds 
of  the  masses.  As  lured  on  by  the  ideals  of  the  Ameri- 
can Nation  in  its  management  of  our  part  in  the  great 
war  the  attentive  supporters  back  home  found  them- 
selves undergoing  a  strange  transformation  as  to  what 
is  worth  fighting  for  and  what  is  not. 

LOYALTY  A  RACIAL  INSTINCT 

On  consideration  we  find  that  loyalty  is  a  distinctly 
human  trait,  that  it  is  an  aspect  of  the  racial  instinct 

117 


n8    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

for  warfare  and  general  combat  and  that  its  exact 
definition  is  always  modified  by  the  circumstances  in 
the  case.  There  is  truly  such  a  thing  as  loyalty  among 
thieves.  The  idea  of  loyalty  first  comes  sharply  to  the 
individual  during  what  we  call  the  gang  age  in  boys. 
And  there,  for  the  time  being  at  least,  its  considera- 
tions outweigh  those  of  the  home,  the  school,  the 
church  or  the  state.  Upon  receiving  the  evidence  we 
cannot  question  the  fact  that  ordinary  boys  may  be  led 
into  committing  forms  of  crime  and  misdemeanour 
if  urged  on  by  the  spirit  of  their  gang;  and  that  they 
may  regard  it  as  their  first  sacred  duty  to  defend 
themselves  to  the  extreme  limit  of  excluding  the  rights 
of  the  adult  governing  institutions  listed  above. 

Those  who  best  understand  the  nature  of  boys  never 
venture  to  break  down  by  any  violent  force  the  strong 
tie  of  loyalty  which  binds  together  in  a  secret  and 
sworn  compact  the  members  of  the  gang.  The  only 
safe  policy  in  dealing  with  such  a  positive  force  is  to 
reorganise  and  re-direct  it.  The  final  procedure  is 
to  show  the  members  of  the  boy  gang  how  they  may 
divide  their  loyalty  without  giving  it  up  on  weakening 
it ;  to  show  how  to  be  loyal  to  the  group  when  it  is  act- 
ing within  its  rights  and  to  the  institution  with  which 
it  clashes  when  it  is  not.  After  a  careful  presentation 
of  the  claims  of  all  sides  and  the  full  merits  of  any 
given  case,  the  boy  gang  which  set  out  to  commit 
some  kind  of  deviltry  may  be  led  to  perform  some 
kind  of  valued  public  service. 


CHANGED  CONCEPTION  OF  LOYALTY     119 

MEN  AS  OVERGROWN   BOYS 

A  prime  difficulty  in  respect  to  the  continual  growth 
of  a  new  race  is  the  individual  problem  of  a  complete 
unfoldment  of  one's  own  life.  Character  grows  by 
epochs  or  stages.  For  example,  the  instinct  for  vo- 
cational adjustment  does  not  awaken  till  the  man  is 
practically  grown  physically.  For  that  reason,  lacking 
adequate  experience  and  the  advantage  of  an  inner  de- 
sire, the  boy  who  quits  school  early  and  goes  out  to 
earn  a  living  nearly  always  gets  into  a  "blind  alley"  and 
remains  there.  He  is  thus  destined  never  to  know  the 
real  personal  significance  of  a  self-chosen  life  work 
and  his  effort  will  be  correspondingly  dull. 

So  with  loyalty.  Thousands  of  otherwise  good  men 
never  pass  the  gang  stage  in  their  conception  of 
loyalty.  It  is  a  form  of  retarded  development.  They 
do  not  grow  to  the  later  point  of  normal  development, 
that  of  regarding  themselves  as  keepers  of  the  majesty 
of  the  law  and  defenders  of  the  integrity  of  the  nation. 
So  the  criminal  or  the  convict  is  often  a  very  good 
man  with  a  very  boyish  point  of  view — the  idea  that 
the  law  is  something  which  the  people  obey  only  be- 
cause they  must,  and  which  they  disobey  whenever 
punishment  therefor  seems  to  be  avoidable. 


A  COURSE  OF  TRAINING 

Our  chief  fault  has  been  that  of  trusting  the  in- 
dividual to  mature  his  mind  and  judgment  unguided. 
Loyalty  and  patriotism  are  terms  which  necessarily 
imply  a  course  of  training  of  some  kind.  But  it  must 


120    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

become  a  part  of  the  accepted  duty  of  the  various 
schools  to  see  that  every  individual  passes  through  all 
the  stages  of  the  course  in  patriotism  until  he  is  able 
to  think  of  his  own  career  in  relation  both  to  the 
life  of  the  local  group  and  the  life  of  the  race  at  large. 
The  crowning  effort  of  the  unfolding  individual, 
as  regards  loyalty,  must  be  the  discovery  of  his  unity 
with  the  life  of  common  mankind  and  the  resultant 
inner  conviction  of  his  duty  to  support  any  course 
of  endeavour  which  tallies  most  closely  with  the  in- 
herent demands  of  the  race.  This  is  race  loyalty  and 
may  become  race  patriotism,  than  which  there  is  none 
higher.  The  duty  of  the  school  to  see  that  the  young 
pupil  slowly  travels  in  outline  over  the  general  path 
of  race  experience  implies  a  very  exacting  method  of 
treatment  of  the  learner's  growing  conception  of  loy- 
alty, so  that  finally  he  may  remain  true  and  faithful, 
to  the  gang,  the  school,  the  home,  the  church,  the 
community,  the  nation  and  the  race.  After  the  various 
steps  have  been  carefully  taken  in  such  a  course,  it  is 
entirely  reasonable  that  a  very  ordinary  type  of  in- 
dividual may  become  enthusiastically  loyal  to  the 
rights  of  all  of  these. 

AMERICA   HAS   LED 

Perhaps  America  will  receive  the  credit  for  having 
first  pointed  the  way  to  a  higher  loyalty  than  the 
national.  Her  early  struggle  for  independence  estab- 
lished for  the  time  being  a  fine  type  of  loyalty  to  per- 
sonal liberty  and  individual  rights.  But  that  form 
of  patriotism  has  now  come  to  be  regarded  as  rather 


CHANGED  CONCEPTION  OF  LOYALTY     121 

boyish  and  selfish.  The  civil  war  raised  us  a  step 
higher  and  taught  us  as  a  nation  the  meaning  of 
loyalty  to  an  undivided  self.  Throughout  all  her 
periods  of  struggle  for  independence,  freedom  and 
a  united  nation,  however,  America  never  arose  to 
the  conception  of  a  free  humanity.  That  she  slowly 
stumbled  upon  during  the  world  war.  For  the  first 
two  years  of  the  European  struggle  America  did  not 
see  this  crisis  as  in  any  vital  sense  her  own.  And 
only  after  her  ancient  "rights"  began  to  be  ignored 
by  the  Prussian  war  lords  did  she  come  to  her  full 
senses  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  situation. 

It  was  a  charming  transformation  which  came  to 
the  hearts  of  the  American  people  in  the  spring  of 
1917  and  continued  from  that  time  on  to  grow  in 
magnitude.  To  shift  from  a  selfish  patriotism  of 
mere  defence  of  one's  rights  and  liberties  to  a  patriot- 
ism in  behalf  of  the  rights  and  liberties  of  all  humanity 
is  a  startling  change  for  a  hundred  million  people  to 
accomplish  in  six  months'  time.  But  we  did  it. 


A  NEW  NATIONAL  BUSINESS 

So  the  American  nation  changed  its  business  in  a 
very  brief  period  of  time;  and  along  with  that  came 
a  change  in  its  loyalty.  Without  detracting  from 
the  old  national  loyalty  the  issue  now  became  world 
loyalty.  It  is  interesting  to  consider  briefly  here  how 
the  new  purpose  made  nearly  all  the  old  lines  of  trade 
and  activity  look  little  and  mean.  Men  in  control  of 
those  types  of  occupation  which  could  not  put  them- 
selves on  a  win-the-war  basis  were  glad  to  suspend 


122    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

so  that  all  concerned  might  change  their  work  or  offer 
their  services  to  the  nation. 

There  quickly  developed  a  new  and  eager  interest 
in  the  history  and  the  geography  of  the  nations  in- 
volved in  the  conflict.  Old  maps  were  brought  out 
and  new  ones  were  constructed  while  all  the  masses  of 
our  people  watched  the  re-making  of  civilisation. 
Common  people  were  now  thinking  in  terms  of  human 
interest  and  race  desire.  It  was  found  to  be  quite 
as  easy  and  far  more  interesting  for  the  ordinary  per- 
son than  to  think  in  relation  to  the  affairs  of  local 
gossip.  And  it  is  perhaps  true  to  say  that  the  com- 
mon mind  of  the  American  people  was  never  before  so 
pure,  so  unselfish  and  so  exalted  as  during  the  war 
period. 


SOME    PECULIAR    BY-PRODUCTS 

Some  curious  incidents  of  the  later  months  of  the 
war  period  are  worthy  of  note  here.  There  was  a 
marked  decrease  in  crime.  With  high  wages  for 
labour  and  the  whole  country  backing  a  great  human 
cause  only  the  semi-insane  could  think  of  doing  any 
criminal  violence  to  society.  Prisons  were  depopu- 
lated. Men  regarded  as  dangerous  felons  were  now 
fired  with  a  true  patriotic  zeal  to  go  into  the  ranks 
and  die,  if  need  be,  for  the  cause  of  human  liberty. 
Only  the  children  increased  their  wrong-doing,  but 
that  was  attributed  to  the  absence  of  the  usual  re- 
straints and  their  natural  tendency  to  view  the  war  as 
merely  a  bloody  struggle  for  physical  supremacy.  And 
they,  too,  near  the  close  of  the  conflict  began  to  sense 


CHANGED  CONCEPTION  OF  LOYALTY     123 

the  higher  purposes  thereof  and  to  mend  their  ways 
accordingly. 

Another  conspicuous  incident  of  the  same  period 
was  the  rise  in  the  general  public  health.  It  is  true 
that  the  influenza  epidemic  swept  over  the  country 
and  carried  away  some  hundreds  of  thousands  of  vic- 
tims, but  the  cases  of  sickness  and  the  deaths  from  gen- 
eral causes  were  greatly  reduced.  Diseases  connected 
with  the  digestive  tract  were  especially  less  frequent 
during  the  year  or  more  of  national  food  conserva- 
tion. The  American  habit  of  over-eating  was  forced 
to  suspend ;  and  this  was  perhaps  the  cause  of  the  cut- 
ting down  of  the  sick  list. 


WE  CAN  NEVER  RETURN 

America  can  never  come  back  to  her  old  type  of 
mere  national  loyalty.  She  has  awakened  to  her  con- 
sciousness of  fellowship  with  all  the  peoples  of  the 
world.  The  fright  fulness  of  the  Prussian  enemy,  the 
wrongs  they  perpetrated  against  the  aged  and  in- 
firm who  fell  in  their  path  and  the  innocent  child- 
hood which  they  so  ruthlessly  sacrificed  to  the  god  of 
war  and  greed — all  this  pricked  the  conscience  of  our 
people  to  the  core  and  brought  them  rapidly  to  their 
new  conception  of  the  war  as  a  servant  of  human 
freedom. 

So  America  will  never  be  satisfied  with  merely  a 
local  and  a  national  patriotism.  She  will  never  be 
satisfied  with  merely  defending  her  rights  and  with- 
holding her  own  possessions  against  the  encroachments 
of  a  possible  enemy.  She  must  now  have  an  inter- 


124    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

national  mission  and  that  in  the  form  of  some  great 
human  service.  The  next  great  struggle  in  which  the 
American  people  will  possibly  engage  may  be  either 
death-dealing  or  bloodless,  but  it  is  practically  certain 
to  be  a  struggle  to  give  something  to  humanity  and 
not  to  take  something  from  another  nation. 

But  this  loyalty  of  Greater  America  to  the  new- 
found heart  of  common  humanity  is  a  much  sweeter 
and  dearer  thing  than  the  old  form  of  loyalty 
of  self-defence,  and  yet  it  includes  that.  Its  prac- 
tice amounts  to  a  guarantee  that  the  rights  and  liber- 
ties of  her  own  people  will  be  taken  care  of  even 
better  than  before  with  this  cheering  knowledge  of 
the  racial  need  as  a  basis  of  procedure. 


THE  PROBLEM   OF  RECONSTRUCTION 

The  chief  task  of  reconstruction  in  relation  to  the 
age-old  human  instinct  of  belligerency  and  its  im- 
portant aspect,  loyalty,  now  begins  to  appear,  and  that 
as  a  phase  of  the  central  idea  of  this  entire  discussion, 
namely,  to  make  humanity  acquainted  with  itself.  Just 
as  fast  as  the  chosen  leaders  of  the  nations  proceed 
with  a  simple  programme  of  teaching  all  the  people 
what  the  great  human  dispositions  are,  the  fact  that 
they  are  a  common  racial  heritage  and  how  these  inner 
cravings  may  be  satisfied  through  the  experience  of 
the  common  affairs  of  society — just  as  fast  as  they 
thus  acquaint  the  common  people  with  the  nature  of 
Common  Man,  so  quickly  shall  they  be  able  to  guide 
human  society  onward  and  upward  toward  a  goal  of 
universal  peace  and  contentment. 


CHANGED  CONCEPTION  OF  LOYALTY     125 

It  is  unnecessary  to  argue  that  no  advanced  course 
of  public  school  training  is  called  for  here.  For,  under 
right  methods,  it  is  possible  to  lead  even  those  possess- 
ing the  mere  rudiments  of  a  general  education  to  an 
understanding  of  how  the  common  individual  may 
slowly  discover  himself  and  the  best  elements  of  the 
race  life  as  being  identical  in  their  general  make-up. 
But,  to  reiterate,  the  natural  method  of  self-discovery 
and  of  discovery  of  the  heart  of  humanity  is  not 
through  the  medium  of  any  text-book  course.  It  is 
rather  a  participation,  as  one  grows  to  maturity,  in 
those  great  activities  which  wrought  the  civilised  world 
out  of  confusion  and  made  man  the  superb  creature 
which  he  is  to-day. 


A  VOYAGE  OF  DISCOVERY 

Human  life  is  a  great  voyage  of  discovery  through- 
out, but  there  are  certain  epochs  therein  which  mark 
conspicuously  the  individual's  discovery  of  some  new 
relation  of  himself  to  the  group  life,  and  all  this  tends 
to  explain  the  increasing  spheres  of  his  loyalty.  At 
about  ten  or  twelve  years  of  age  there  is  the  "dis- 
covery" of  the  gang  with  its  consequent  call  for  loy- 
alty. Because  of  a  possible  conflict  of  authority  there 
is  now  likely  to  be  a  discovery  of  the  school  as  possess- 
ing rights  which  deserve  respect  and  obedience.  Then, 
during  adolescence,  there  is  the  discovery  of  the  tribal 
consciousness  with  its  new  sphere  of  compulsion. 
Later  comes  the  discovery  of  the  home  as  an  institu- 
tion deserving  of  fidelity  and  sacrifice.  Again  there 
is  a  discovery  of  the  community  as  representing  some 


126    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

one's  sacrifice  and  as  calling  for  every  one's  share  of 
service.  Still  again,  there  is  the  discovery  of  the 
nation  as  an  institution  deserving  of  one's  support 
and  defence.  And  at  last,  there  is  the  charming  dis- 
covery of  Man  as  deserving  the  highest  form  of  loy- 
alty of  all  the  things  under  heaven. 

As  a  tremendous  force  for  arousing  the  people  to  a 
sense  of  their  national  loyalty  and  of  driving  home 
to  all  a  deep  conviction  of  one's  duty  to  his  country, 
the  late  President  Theodore  Roosevelt  has  perhaps 
taken  the  most  conspicuous  place  in  the  entire  history 
of  our  republic.  And  as  a  prophet  and  spokesman 
in  one  of  the  charming  new  conceptions  of  a  world 
patriotism,  the  name  of  President  Woodrow  Wilson 
to-day  heads  all  the  list. 

So  the  common  individual,  slowly  ripened  into  a 
rich  human  soul,  comes  to  the  full  race  consciousness 
and  to  the  point  where  he  is  willing  to  subordinate  all 
other  earthly  considerations  to  the  well-being  of  his 
fellow  man.  Thus  finally  may  all  the  peoples  of  the 
earth  become  bound  together  in  a  permanent  bond  of 
friendship  and  good-will,  for  God  has  never  permitted 
man  to  know  a  higher  type  of  loyalty. 


XII 
WAR  AS  DRAMATISED  ALTRUISM 

"All  the  world's  a  stage  and  all  the  men  and  women 
merely  players."  Indeed.  As  seen  from  afar  the 
world  war  was  one  of  the  mightiest  dramas  of  which 
the  human  mind  can  conceive.  And  the  fact  that  the 
chief  actors  in  the  terrible  affair  were  consciously  play- 
ing before  a  vast  audience  doubtless  influenced  the 
final  outcome  far  more  than  has  yet  been  explained. 
For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  mankind  literally 
millions  of  people  have  been  privileged  to  sit  at  the 
breakfast  table  and  review  in  brief  the  tragic  scenes 
of  a  world  on  fire.  This  making  of  history  while  you 
wait  was  at  once  so  dramatic  in  its  form,  so  vast  in 
its  dimensions,  and  so  thrilling  in  its  potential  mean- 
ings for  the  future  of  man  on  the  earth  as  almost  to 
daze  the  mortal  understanding. 

PERMANENT  PEACE  NOT  ASSURED 

The  mere  fact  that  the  whole  civilised  world  is 
now  sick  and  tired  of  war,  and  the  further  fact  that 
all  the  great  nations  are  willing  to  enter  a  league  to 
enforce  peace  is  no  guarantee  that  warfare  among 
mankind  is  permanently  ended.  Man  is  a  born  fighter. 
His  belligerent  instinct  will  not  disappear  unless  this 

127 


128    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

inheritance  gets  in  the  way  of  his  physical  existence 
and  causes  complete  self-destruction.  You  may  pet 
and  tame  the  puppies  of  the  bulldog  for  a  dozen 
generations,  by  careful  management  making  each  indi- 
vidual lead  a  quiet,  pampered  and  peaceful  life.  Even 
so,  but  the  last  litter  will  inherit  the  same  old  fighting 
bulldogism  all  ready  savagely  to  tear  and  mangle  the 
enemy  who  may  arouse  him. 

So  with  man.  No  amount  of  taming  will  ever 
cause  his  fighting  instinct  to  disappear.  The  only 
hope  is  to  teach  him  to  fight  constructively  rather  than 
destructively,  to  fight  for  his  highest  interests  as  man 
and  never  against  them,  to  fight  to  save  and  to  heal 
rather  than  to  kill  and  maim  his  fellows.  As  urged 
above,  we  have  failed  utterly  in  bringing  about  any 
essential  change  in  the  age-old  inherent  nature  of 
man,  but  we  have  scarcely  begun  to  realise  upon  our 
possibilities  of  directing  this  persistent  heritage  to- 
ward higher  aspirations  during  the  formative  period 
of  individual  life. 

Man  has  slowly  learned  how  to  harness  the  de- 
structive energy  of  fire,  of  the  lightning,  of  the  winds, 
of  the  waves.  These  things  which  he  once  trembled 
before  are  now  to  some  extent  his  servants.  Now 
the  greatest  task  of  all  time  confronts  the  human 
ingenuity:  To  find  a  way  to  control  and  direct  the 
terrible  energies  which  the  Infinite  has  planted  for- 
ever within  human  nature.  Can  he  do  it?  Can  man 
master  his  own  spirit  through  practical  guidance  of  his 
offspring  during  their  formative  period?  To  do  so 
is  to  solve  the  problem  of  the  ages  and  to  render  war- 
fare on  the  earth  no  more  forever. 


WAR  AS  DRAMATISED  ALTRUISM 


NONE   CAN   STAND  ALONE 


129 


War  as  a  profession  is  an  obsession  and  soon  be- 
comes a  menace  to  the  individual  so  engaged  as  well 
as  to  the  world  at  large.  So  is  the  business  or  com- 
merce an  obsession  if  carried  on  as  an  exclusive  end  of 
existence.  So  is  professional  religion  in  its  tendency  a 
dangerous  occupation  in  so  far  as  it  exalts  itself  above 
the  other  great  affairs  of  human  existence.  To  win 
the  race  for  Man  all  these  must  take  their  place  in  a 
federation  or  a  democracy  of  active  aims  and  purposes. 

Although  the  fighting  instinct  can  not  be  starved 
out  of  the  race  it  can  and  must  be  directed.  The 
fighting  impulse  in  boys  is  just  as  divine  an  attribute 
as  the  play  impulse  in  little  children.  Both  can  go 
to  "the  bad"  if  misdirected,  and  both  may  be  turned 
slowly  into  good.  The  belligerent  tendency  is  nature's 
first  crude  way  of  calling  the  boyish  individual  out 
upon  the  stage  of  life  where  he  is  conscious  of  an 
audience.  He  fights  for  some  imagined  right,  but 
always  before  an  audience  either  present  or  absent. 
In  his  mind  he  has  his  backers,  his  "rooters'  club,"  his 
promoters  and  propagandists.  The  real  or  imagined 
reinforcements  of  these  constitute  his  "morale." 

CONTROL  OF  FIGHTING  INSTINCT 

So,  the  problem  of  permanent  peace  appears  as  one 
of  careful  self -study  on  the  part  of  man,  with  the 
particular  purpose  of  learning  to  direct  his  instinct 
for  belligerency.  The  world  leaders  who  are  now 
warm  with  a  desire  to  establish  a  league  of  nations 


130    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

will  do  well  to  look  into  this  inherent  source  of  human 
conduct  rather  than  to  try  to  deal  directly  with  a  gen- 
eration of  adults  perhaps  already  theoretically  trained 
in  the  lust  of  war.  The  best  agency  for  universal 
peace  is  therefore  not  a  treaty  or  a  solemn  compact 
between  nations,  but  rather  a  mode  of  education  and 
training  for  all  the  human  young. 

The  only  natural  fighter  among  mankind  is  the 
twelve-year-old  boy.  He  is  instinctively  eager  for 
combat  and  blood-letting,  either  as  principal  in  the 
game  or  as  a  close  second.  We  call  out  an  army  of 
youths  and  re-arouse  the  fighting  instinct  after  it  has 
subsided  and  given  place  to  the  love-making  instinct. 
No  eighteen-year-old  desires  to  fight.  He  longs  to 
go-a-courting.  What  a  tragedy  to  call  him  to  war! 
His  only  recourse  now  is  to  go  into  the  bloody  affair 
with  a  secret  pretence  that  his  martial  conduct  is 
applauded  by  the  one  he  loves.  He  is  now  a  willing 
warrior  only  to  win  more  of  her  approval. 


THE  DRAMATIC  ELEMENT  OF  WAR 

There  is  much  justification  for  the  idea  that  the 
martial  spirit  in  normal  man  can  best  be  directed  to 
higher  activities  if  we  take  careful  account  of  its 
dramatic  nature.  Perhaps  never  before  in  the  history 
of  human  struggle  was  the  individual  warrior  so  con- 
scious of  an  audience  as  in  the  recent  conflict.  He 
felt  that  his  every  move  was  being  watched  by  a  vast 
company  of  backers  and  that  he  was  therefore  all 
the  time  a  subject  of  either  applause  or  dismay. 

America  alone  spent  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars 


WAR  AS  DRAMATISED  ALTRUISM      131 

on  morale,  to  prove  to  our  troops  that  we  were  a 
constant  witness  of  their  deeds  and  a  hearty  applauder 
of  their  every  semblance  of  heroism.  Never  were 
common  men  apparently  so  willing  to  plunge  into  a 
place  of  certain  destruction,  as  they  went  forward 
almost  intoxicated  with  the  tremendous  applause  of 
their  officers,  their  comrades,  the  officials  of  the  nation 
and  the  many  dear  ones  back  home.  They  proved 
that  it  is  easy  and  even  glorious  to  die  if  the  manner 
of  death  can  but  be  that  of  a  dramatic  heroism. 

The  moral  for  the  reformers  of  society  is  here  most 
apparent.  They  must  satisfy  the  belligerent  nature  of 
the  young  with  something  that  is  at  least  dramatic, 
something  that  will  call  for  struggle  and  hard  per- 
sonal sacrifice  and  the  possibility  of  an  applauding 
audience.  There  must  be  set  a  great  national  stage, 
and  perhaps  not  infrequently  a  mighty,  constructive 
world  drama  sufficient  to  bring  a  thrill  and  loud  ex- 
pressions of  approbation  to  the  multitude  of  wit- 
nesses. 

RE-SET  THE  WORLD  STAGE 

The  chief  element  of  glory  in  the  conduct  of  the 
main  actors  in  the  recent  conflict  was  the  fact  that 
they  were  in  the  role  of  players  upon  a  mighty  stage. 
The  slaughter  of  human  beings  involved  was  a  ter- 
rible but  not  a  necessary  part  of  the  momentous  drama. 
Substitute,  if  you  will,  a  mighty  conflict  with  one  of 
the  terrible  forces  of  nature  without.  Make  the  task 
one  of  vast  trial  for  the  endurance  of  the  chief  actors 
and  one  involving  not  a  little  risk  of  life  itself,  and  the 
glory  of  the  drama  will  continue.  If  a  common  man 


132    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

will  die  willingly  for  a  certain  portion  of  mankind — 
his  own  country — much  more  gloriously  will  he  risk 
his  life  for  the  sake  of  all  mankind.  The  Nazarene  did 
it  and  startled  the  world  with  his  dramatic  sacrifice. 
Other  men  will  gladly  do  it,  if  the  conditions  can  be 
made  right  for  such  a  tragic  ending  of  life. 

Now  we  come  to  the  idea  of  a  possible  substitute  for 
war.  Not  merely  the  valuable  meek  heroism  of  the 
athletic  field  and  the  theatre  but  a  form  of  real  heroic 
action  with  a  part  of  the  world  as  the  stage  and  a  great 
army  of  players — that  is  what  we  seem  to  need  most 
as  a  form  of  satisfying  the  combative-heroic  instinct 
so  deeply  imbedded  in  the  human  nature.  The  great 
nations,  one  at  a  time  or  all  together,  can  set  a  stage 
of  vast  dimensions  for  a  constructive  struggle  with 
some  mighty  obstacle  in  the  path  of  human  progress, 
for  example : 

Removing  Mountains.  There  are  vast  mountain 
areas  on  all  the  continents  as  yet  scarcely  touched  by 
the  ingenuity  of  man.  It  is  conceivable  that  these — or 
certain  of  them — might  be  declared  a  common  pos- 
session of  all  the  contiguous  nations  and  that  a  million 
men  with  machines  to  support  them  might  be  set  to 
work  leveling  a  mountain  into  a  fertile  and  habitable 
plain.  Imagine  the  gigantic  machinery  to  be  in- 
vented, the  superb  test  of  inventive  genius,  the  happy 
horde  of  workmen  with  their  splendid  motive  of 
service  for  Man,  the  long  lines  of  comers  and  goers 
in  the  many  radiating  directions,  and  the  millions  of 
eager  on-lookers  and  applauders  among  the  expectant 
peoples  in  the  distance. 

Transforming  the   Desert.     Almost  immeasurable 


WAR  AS  DRAMATISED  ALTRUISM     133 

tracts  of  open  land  on  some  of  the  continents  are  still 
in  the  form  of  a  barren  desert.  To  water  these  and 
turn  them  into  beautiful  garden  plateaus  might  again 
engage  for  years  the  heroic  effort  of  whole  armies  of 
men.  The  overcoming  of  nature's  time-worn  arrange- 
ments— such,  for  example,  as  the  lifting  and  diverting 
the  waters  of  a  river  like  the  Columbia — would  con- 
stitute a  project  upon  which  the  eyes  of  at  least  a 
whole  nation  might  be  centred.  When  the  Dutch 
finally  complete  the  epoch-making  task  of  draining  the 
Zuyder  Zee,  all  the  nations  of  the  globe  should  gather 
at  a  suitable  place,  through  their  delegates,  and  put  on 
a  celebration  that  would  rank  conspicuously  in  modern 
history. 

Conquering  the  Sea.  The  mighty  monster  of  the 
deep  is  in  many  respects  still  the  master  of  man.  So 
far  he  has  only  been  able  to  toy  with  it.  Still  the  ter- 
rible waves  roll  on,  wasting  more  energy  than  is  con- 
trolled by  all  the  machinery  known  to  human  intel- 
ligence. To  harness  these  surging  billows  may  alone 
conceivably  become  a  human  project  of  a  magnitude 
hitherto  unknown. 

Mastering  the  Air.  Likewise,  the  infinite  energies 
of  the  atmosphere,  the  winds  and  the  mysterious  power 
of  the  air  currents — to  conduct  a  world  movement  into 
the  vast  depths  of  this  Unknown  and  bring  back  its 
fuller  subordination  to  the  convenience  of  man  might 
call  for  the  sacrifices  of  a  million  heroic  souls. 

WHAT  HATH  GOD  WROUGHT? 

So  the  Hand  of  Infinite  Wisdom  has  already  set  the 
titanic  stage,  in  the  mountain  height,  upon  the  desert 


134    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

plain,  in  the  rolling  sea,  in  the  swirling  air,  and  many 
places  elsewhere — and  He  has  said  unto  Man,  his  high- 
est creature  here  on  the  earth :  Behold  the  place  where- 
upon to  play  the  great  dramas  of  human  existence. 
Enter  in  and  play  thy  part  heroically  and  conquer  the 
mystery  of  these  things.  If  thou  failest,  then  die 
gloriously  in  the  effort  and  the  world  will  applaud 
thee  while  thou  failest  and  another  takest  thy  place 
among  the  players). 

So  the  peculiar  form  of  warfare  and  the  killing  of 
man  by  his  fellows  as  involved  therein,  is  seen  to  be  but 
an  incident  of  that  greater  thing,  namely,  the  Divine 
Urge  which  slowly  evolves  out  of  the  depths  of  the 
eternal  human  inheritance  and  lures  Man  on  to  some 
mighty  project  of  a  heroic  character.  When  there  is 
in  the  world  no  longer  anything  worth  dying  for,  then 
there  will  certainly  be  far  less  left  to  live  for.  Man 
must  be  and  will  be  heroic. 


PUBLICITY  THE  NEW  SECRET 

Publicity  of  what  he  is  doing  and  that  to  all  who 
can  be  made  to  attend — this  is  one  of  Man's  finest 
new  secrets  of  self -direct  ion  and  peaceful  occupation. 
To  know  the  inherent  nature  and  to  know  how  best  to 
govern  its  unfoldment  in  a  well  rounded  personality — 
this  is  the  twofold  aspect  of  the  thesis  of  this  entire 
series  of  discussions.  To  know  how  to  present  his 
deeds  to  the  public  mind  for  daily  criticism  and  cor- 
rection is  now  to  be  one  of  the  first  instrumentalities 
of  re-directing  civilisation. 

Secret  treaties  and  secret  diplomacy  are  now  out  of 


WAR  AS  DRAMATISED  ALTRUISM     135 

date.  One  of  the  outstanding  features  of  the  great 
war  was  the  almost  brutal  frankness  of  the  British 
Government  as  it  announced  its  heavy  losses  at  sea  and 
its  several  appalling  losses  of  men  in  battle.  But  this 
same  open  dealing  bound  the  people  of  that  nation  in 
a  closer  bond  of  unity  and  a  deeper  determination  to 
win.  Until  it  all  came  to  pass  no  living  man  was 
capable  of  imagining  the  achievements  of  the  superb 
British  people  during  the  four  years  of  agony. 

In  ten  thousand  hidden  places  to-day  individual  men 
and  women  and  small  isolated  groups  are  doing  things 
important  enough  to  be  heralded  everywhere.  We 
have  as  yet  lamentably  inadequate  facilities  for  a  gen- 
eral interchange  of  ideas  and  ideals  in  regard  to  the 
common  work  of  life.  How  can  all  have  the  benefits 
of  what  each  one  has  learned  how  to  do — that  is  still 
a  baffling  question  for  publicity  to  answer. 

AN  OPEN  FORUM 

During  the  world  war  all  the  American  people  par- 
ticipated in  an  open  forum.  In  a  figurative  sense  the 
great  war  zone  and  the  hundreds  of  industrial  plants 
were  but  a  vast  laboratory  where  the  people's  ideas 
were  being  tested  and  proved.  At  each  dramatic  turn 
in  affairs  the  decision  as  to  the  next  step  and  the  final 
judgment  as  to  its  worth  were  to  some  degree  left 
to  the  people  themselves.  The  people  back  home 
changed  their  entire  mode  of  life  to  suit  the  demands 
of  the  fighters  and  the  war  workers.  These  in  turn 
modified  their  effort  again  and  again  to  make  it  con- 
form to  the  derived  opinions  of  the  masses  in  the  rear. 


136    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

During  the  period  of  the  four  year  struggle,  and  that 
for  the  first  time  in  history,  the  world  at  large  enjoyed 
daily  publicity  in  regard  to  the  progress  of  the  only 
big  task  before  the  human  mind.  For  once  and  in  a 
thousand  situations  the  human  family  exhibited  itself, 
each  part  to  the  others.  And  almost  daily  each  part 
corrected  its  effort  in  the  light  of  the  trial  and  error  of 
all  the  others.  It  was  marvellously  stimulating,  this 
watching  of  a  world  in  the  making.  And  while  it 
rightly  made  the  petty  affairs  near  about  look  mean 
and  insignificant,  there  was  a  compensation  of  intense 
happiness  in  living  and  witnessing  the  world  drama. 
We  were  most  certainly  approaching  the  cosmic  con- 
sciousness as  a  type  of  mind  for  all  ordinary  people 
when  the  white  flag  finally  went  up. 

WHAT  ABOUT  THE  HEADLINES? 

On  the  day  of  the  announcement  of  the  peace  armis- 
tice, when  bells  were  ringing,  whistles  blowing  and  the 
masses  running  hilariously  upon  the  streets,  a  small 
boy  hurried  to  his  mother  breathlessly  to  ask,  "What 
will  they  do  for  headlines  in  the  papers  now  ?"  That 
childish  exclamation  is  symbolic  of  a  startling  chal- 
lenge which  now  might  be  appropriately  made  to  the 
elected  leaders  of  the  new  order  of  civilisation — What 
shall  be  in  the  headlines  now?  What  event  can  you 
stage  with  such  dramatic  effect  as  to  engross  the  at- 
tention of  the  whole  people  and  give  them  the  im- 
measurable benefits  of  thinking  together  and  acting  as 
one  mighty  human  family? 

The  psychology  of  human  behaviour  implies  a  study 


WAR  AS  DRAMATISED  ALTRUISM      137 

of  the  psychology  of  publicity.  The  newspaper  and 
the  magazine  are  our  greatest  text-books  and  these  are 
being  written  by  the  people  themselves.  How  properly 
to  give  publicity  to  current  events,  how  to  deal  fairly 
and  honestly  with  the  public  mind  through  the  medium 
of  news  reports  and  advertisements,  is  becoming  more 
and  more  a  problem  for  the  entire  people  to  solve 
through  their  appointed  agents.  For,  with  the  great 
mass  of  mankind  sitting  daily  in  judgment  over  those 
in  the  positions  of  responsibility — as  determined  by 
the  public  reports  of  the  conduct  of  these — the  progc- 
ress  of  civilisation  will  go  on  a  pace  more  rapid  than 
ever  knowm  before. 

Finally,  let  us  hope  that  there  may  be  established 
a  great  international  congress  of  nations,  incidentally 
to  keep  the  peace,  but  practically  to  legislate  in  the 
interest  of  all  mankind.  To  stage  some  big  world  proj- 
ect for  every  season  of  the  year,  to  keep  the  people 
everywhere  in  an  open  forum  of  discussion  of  these 
cosmic  affairs,  to  establish  a  permanent  and  generous 
means  of  universal  publicity  of  the  major  events  as 
they  pass  and  to  unify  the  minds  of  all  the  inhabitants 
of  the  globe — this  hints  at  the  enticing  and  gigantic 
task  of  the  permanent  reconstruction  of  society  as  it 
appears  above  the  horizon  of  human  endeavour.  If 
we  can  thus  continue  to  stage  a  series  of  mighty 
dramas,  giving  occupations  and  opportunities  for 
heroic  sacrifice  to  a  million  at  a  time,  the  instinctive 
desire  for  the  war  drama  will  be  satisfied  and  we  shall 
continue  to  dwell  in  peace  together  indefinitely. 


PART  TWO     THE  QUEST  OF  THE 
INDIVIDUAL. 


XIII 

ARE  WE  READY  FOR  DEMOCRACY? 

Now,  it  may  be  said  that  we  have  found  a  sub- 
stitute for  the  superman  as  a  standard  of  guidance  for 
society  and  that  we  are  highly  satisfied  with  him.  Al- 
ready his  sturdy  form  entices  us.  Indeed,  he  is  a  most 
noble  and  inspiring  creature.  But  he  is  none  other 
than  the  every  day  human  being,  inherently  possessing 
the  so  called  normal  faculties  and  following  daily  that 
plain  and  worthy  course  of  life  for  which  his  heart  in- 
stinctively yearns.  Kings  must  bow  to  him,  all  the 
elect  of  the  earth  must  do  him  reverence,  and  all  who 
would  be  completely  saved  must  touch  the  hem  of  his 
garment.  He  is  the  superb  better  self  within  us  all. 
He  is  not  confined  to  place  or  rank  or  sex.  Sometimes 
in  the  field  or  the  factory  or  the  senate  or  the  presi- 
dency, we  may  find  him;  sometimes  in  the  kitchen,  or 
sweatshop,  or  nursery,  or  drawing-room,  we  may  find 
her.  As  we  travel  abroad  throughout  the  country  we 
may  meet  this  person  in  various  places  and  disguises, 
but  always  and  ever  the  same  cheerful,  hard-working, 
exuberant  soul — one  in  whom  life  and  love  and  labour 
are  daily  combined  in  one  superb  effort. 

ARE  WE   WORTHY? 

But  as  a  population  of  adults  are  we  ready  for  the 
change?  Are  we  prepared  for  the  society  of  the 

141 


142    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

Common  Man;  not  as  a  whole  people  but  as  individ- 
uals? If  the  victory  over  the  superman  of  Europe 
is  to  become  really  significant  as  a  usable  achievement 
here  in  America  we  must  not  only  apply  its  best 
conclusions  to  the  bringing  up  of  a  changed  type 
of  personality  from  the  juvenile  ranks  below  but  we 
adults  must  experience  a  change  of  heart  of  our  own. 
We  must  purge  ourselves  of  our  selfishness,  grossness 
and  meanness  and  mount  to  a  higher  plane  of  daily 
experience. 

And  just  as  it  was  urged  in  the  earlier  part  of  this 
volume  that  a  true  democracy  can  only  be  grown,  and 
that  is  to  be  accomplished  through  the  righteous  de- 
velopment of  the  young,  so  with  the  spiritual  democ- 
racy from  this  time  forward  to  be  proposed ;  it  must  be 
grown  in  the  hearts  of  our  adult  generation,  and  that 
as  a  part  or  an  aspect  of  our  ordinary  daily  routine  of 
duties.  We  must  be  born  again.  The  times  de- 
mand it.  Our  desire  to  harmonise  with  the  new  world 
democracy  makes  it  imperative  that  we  reorganise 
both  our  conscious  and  subconscious  types  of  thought. 


THINKING    WILL   DO   IT 

In  order  to  put  down  the  supermanism  in  our  daily 
consciousness — and  then  to  redirect  our  reactions  to- 
ward the  world  of  outer  progress  and  improvement,  it 
will  become  necessary  for  us  to  see  ourselves  as  acting 
in  a  new  relation  to  people  and  things.  Much  of  what 
we  prized  for  its  own  sake  must  now  be  measured 
in  terms  of  its  worth  in  the  regeneration  of  our 
hearts  and  the  renewal  of  our  shriveling  spirits.  No 


ARE  WE  READY  FOR  DEMOCRACY?     143 

man  can  serve  two  conflicting  masters  both  of  which 
seek  a  supremacy  over  his  heart,  just  as  society  at  large 
has  failed  in  its  attempt  to  recognise  at  one  time  the 
oppressing  ideals  of  the  superman  and  the  common 
man.  The  Dr.  Jekyl-Mr.  Hyde  type  of  character  is  a 
monstrosity  if  not  a  practical  impossibility. 

But  deep  down  within  our  natures  there  is  a  self  far 
better  than  that  of  which  the  world  gets  a  hint  from 
our  every  day  conduct.  The  majority  of  us  are  in 
such  a  hurry  to  get  some  unimportant  thing  done  that 
we  lack  time  in  which  to  search  our  own  souls  for  the 
element  of  sublimity  and  light  which  lies  hidden  with- 
in. There  is  something  so  genuine,  so  wholesome  and 
so  inspiring  in  the  ordinary  person,  once  we  know 
him  through  and  through.  I  am  satisfied  that  this 
better  quiescent  self  may  be  made  to  dominate  the 
every  day  conduct.  The  problem  involved  is  largely 
a  matter  of  rightly  organising  the  thoughts  and  prac- 
tices which  constitute  the  routine  of  personal  experi- 
ence. The  mass  of  the  people,  we  shall  find,  really 
intend  to  have  their  lives  ring  true.  But  somehow 
certain  hard  adverse  conditions  have  fixed  them  in  a 
path  much  lower  than  that  marked  by  their  ardent 
dreams. 

A  PHYSICIAN  OF  THE  SOUL 

There  is  a  practical  call  everywhere  for  a  physician 
of  the  soul,  a  healer  of  the  deep  wounds  of  the  spirit. 
Here  indeed  will  be  found  the  most  intense  suffering 
to  which  common  mankind  is  subjected — the  anguish 
of  regret,  the  bitterness  of  disappointment.  We  have 
farm  crop  advisers,  vocational  advisers,  and  the  like* 


144    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

And  now  every  community  needs  its  spiritual  advisers. 
While  we  wait  for  the  slow  action  of  the  communities 
in  the  matter  of  an  earnest  spiritual  readjustment,  it 
would  be  a  source  of  great  delight  to  all  those  who 
foave  the  time,  the  means  and  the  disposition  to  go 
about  the  earth  in  an  effort  to  assist  the  doubting  and 
despairing  to  make  out  a  new  and  constructive  plan  for 
their  lives  and  to  start  forward  in  the  realisation  of 
their  dreams. 

Many  years  of  secret  dealing  with  those  who  have 
temporarily  lost  the  way  of  happiness,  have  brought 
some  of  us  a  large  fund  of  experience  as  to  the  per- 
plexities which  disturb  the  inner  consciousness.  And 
we  feel  certain  that  the  effort  of  the  expert  student  of 
humanity  to  heal  these  hidden  wounds  may  be  quite 
as  successful  as  that  of  the  specialist  in  any  other  field 
of  endeavour.  Indeed,  it  may  be  doubted  if  one  can 
ever  fully  comprehend  the  essential  soundness  and 
worth  of  our  common  humanity  until  he  has  been  made 
acquainted  with  those  deep-lying  difficulties  which  en- 
shroud the  despairing  soul. 

FOUR  GREAT  EPOCHS 

Rightly  understood,  the  life  of  the  common  individ- 
ual is  constituted  of  four  great  epochs:  to  laugh,  to 
labour,  to  love  and  to  look  up.  The  laughter  of  life 
is  the  sum-total  of  the  happy  experience  of  childhood 
and  youth.  The  three  other  serious  concerns  of  human 
existence  cannot  be  made  to  impress  seriously  the 
mind  of  the  young.  For  him  very  much  forward 
looking  is  practically  impossible.  Our  planning  for 


ARE  WE  READY  FOR  DEMOCRACY?     145 

him  and  our  preaching  to  him  is  chiefly  our  own  affair, 
at  best  possessing  for  him  only  a  borrowed  interest. 
If  we  have  finished  his  present  course,  we  may  look 
back  to  him  but  he  cannot — will  not — look  forward 
to  us. 

So  with  labour  or  common  industry.  One's  pas- 
sionate fondness  for  it  is  a  growth.  The  best  motive 
for  work  on  the  part  of  the  child  is  the  immediate  ob- 
ject being  dealt  with,  the  obstacle  being  overcome  or 
the  structure  being  set  up.  But  labour  to  the  well 
balanced  adult  personality  is  a  satisfaction  of  the  soul, 
entering  into  the  realm  of  his  finest  dreams.  Industry 
to  the  child  is  a  mere  act  of  achieving;  to  the  adult  it 
is  a  fine  state  of  being. 

To  love,  to  think  well  and  favourably  of  one's  fellows 
of  every  cast  and  rank — that  also  is  a  thing  to  be  ac- 
complished through  practice  rather  than  a  thing  which 
merely  happens  to  mark  one's  character.  It  is  a  dif- 
ficult task  to  teach  the  lessons  of  love-one-another  to 
mere  children  or  even  to  adolescents.  It  will  be  found 
that  they  instinctively  look  upon  one  another  with  not 
a  little  mistrust  and  suspicion,  while  they  are  yet  crude 
in  their  judgments  as  to  what  is  stored  within  the  com- 
mon nature  of  man.  It  is  a  slow  and  tedious  process 
of  self -revelation  and  of  insight  into  the  depths  of 
human  personality  which  finally  enables  one  to  look 
upon  all  mankind  with  general  favour  and  optimism. 
We  all  have  to  learn  to  love  or  we  shall  never  know 
how  to  love.  And  while  the  young  cannot  possibly 
anticipate  a  deep  fondness  for  mankind,  those  adults 
who  have  passed  through  the  epoch  of  sympathetic  hu- 


146    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

man    relationships    cannot    possibly    forget    its    fine 
lessons. 

LIFE  AT  ITS  FULNESS 

But  the  fulness  of  human  existence  is  a  treasury 
possessed  only  by  the  soul  who  has  ripened  his  career 
through  much  trial  and  error,  and  has  at  last  found  the 
durable  satisfactions  of  life  to  consist  not  of  the  things 
which  are  seen  but  the  things  which  are  unseen.  He 
has  learned  to  let  go  his  more  youthful  ambitions  to 
get  and  to  shine  while  he  seeks  the  radiance  of  a  serene 
soul  within.  The  radiant  personality,  however,  is  not 
to  be  thought  of  as  one  who  wears  some  fine  type  of 
garb,  as  one  who  stands  aside  from  the  common  crowd. 
No,  he  trudges  along  with  the  others  and  to  the  out- 
ward eye  he  is  like  them.  But  to  the  discerning  one  he 
is  marked  by  a  peculiar  supremacy  over  the  fear,  the 
turmoil,  the  anguish  of  soul  which  shrivels  so  many 
otherwise  worthy  personalities. 

So,  now  let  us  go  on  with  our  quest  of  the  Great 
Common  Man  as  he  is  to  be  found  in  the  society  of 
the  individual  soul.  Let  us  attempt  in  a  practical  way 
to  find  a  type  of  individual  life  and  consciousness  best 
suited  to  make  us  harmonious  with  the  new  and  prac- 
tical type  of  common  welfare  which  is  an  offspring  of 
the  great  world  struggle,  and  which  will  prepare  us 
for  a  possible  leadership  in  its  continued  realisation 
/from  this  time  forward. 

I  am  anxious  to  have  people  regard  their  better 
selves  more  seriously  and  always  as  a  possibility  of 
.achievement ;  I  want  them  to  regard  even  more  optimis- 


ARE  WE  READY  FOR  DEMOCRACY?     147 

tically  the  potential  worth  of  the  children ;  I  want  every 
downcast  one  to  learn  to  look  forward  again  for  the 
light  which  must  surely  come  back  into  his  life,  in  case 
he  knows  how  to  strive  for  this  end;  I  want  all  the 
thinking,  mature  persons  who  are  willing  to  give  the 
matter  a  trial,  to  join  me  in  a  quest  of  the  individual  as 
best  inherent  in  his  own  personality.  And  all  this, 
let  it  be  understood,  is  to  be  undertaken  as  a  means  of 
higher  entrance  into  this  grand  new  age  of  Man,  and 
for  the  glory  of  Him  whose  divine  purposes  we  should 
all  desire  to  realise  during  our  earthly  existence. 

Finally,  there  is  one  matter  of  which  we  who  have 
tried  out  life  in  its  various  capacities  have  become 
more  and  more  certain,  namely,  that  our  material  ex- 
istence fails  to  give  us  adequate  satisfaction.  Where- 
fore, we  are  the  more  determined  to  launch  ourselves 
for  an  inquiry  into  the  life  of  the  spirit — to  assume 
that  Man  is  spirit  rather  than  matter — and  see  what 
that  will  do  for  our  individual  peace  and  happiness. 


XIV 
REORGANISATION  FROM  WITHIN 

High  on  a  cliff  we  stood — my  companions  and  I — 
and  before  us  we  beheld  outstretched  an  arm  of  the 
mighty  sea.  Dim  in  the  distance  and  near  the  further 
shore  we  saw  a  tiny  object,  seemingly  the  sport  of 
the  dashing  waves.  The  others  gathered  at  our  side 
and  the  vision  cleared  under  our  steady  gaze,  until  the 
form  appeared  to  be  that  of  a  boat  with  a  lone  occu- 
pant tugging  at  the  oars.  Now  the  object  was  seen 
standing  high  on  the  crest  of  the  foamy  sea  and  now 
it  disappeared  in  the  hollow  of  the  wave.  Could  it 
be  possible,  we  asked,  that  an  ordinary  rowboat  might 
weather  the  raging  storm?  To  us  it  was  a  time  of 
intense  strain  and  anxiety.  At  frequent  intervals  we 
felt  certain  the  oarsman  must  be  lost;  then  again  and 
again  he  would  appear  upon  the  crest  of  the  wave 
seemingly  in  masterful  control  of  the  stern  situation. 

Now  the  daring  boatman  was  coming  nearer.  We 
could  begin  to  make  out  more  definitely  his  form  as  he 
leaned  forward  and  back  in-  the  struggle  with  the  ele- 
ments. And  now  we  took  notice  of  his  manly  form 
as  he  approached  the  uncertain  shore.  As  we  stood 
high  on  the  bank  above  we  found  the  occupant  of  the 
tiny  craft  to  be  a  bronzed  and  muscular  young  man. 
The  boat  touched  the  landing,  the  youth  threw  the 

148 


REORGANISATION  FROM  WITHIN       149 

chain  over  a  projecting  rock,  clambered  out  and  began 
to  scale  the  precipitous  cliff.  Up  he  moved  steady  and 
sure-footed  to  the  top.  And  to  our  great  surprise  the 
sturdy  young  hero,  whom  we  had  thought  to  be  bat- 
tling with  the  elements  in  a  life-and-death  struggle, 
came  up  serene  and  smiling.  What  had  seemed  to  us 
such  a  dangerous  and  horrifying  experience  was  to 
him  an  ordinary  daily  occurrence,  a  task  which  merely 
drew  upon  his  well  stored  resources  of  strength  and 
adroitness  in  managing  a  rowboat.  He  soon  made  us 
understand  that  he  had  been  master  of  the  situa- 
tion every  foot  of  the  way  over  and  that  not  for  a 
moment  had  he  expected  to  be  overcome  by  the  waves. 


TRAINED  INNER  RESOURCES 

The  appearance,  the  manner  and  the  frank  expres- 
sion of  the  young  boatman  described  above  were  well 
suited  to  stimulate  some  valuable  reflections  upon  the 
philosophy  of  life.  Here  was  a  youth  who  seemed  to 
have  been  schooled  and  developed  for  a  mastery  of 
the  sea.  He  was  rugged  and  well  rounded  in  physical 
appearance,  quick  to  respond  to  every  necessary  move- 
ment in  the  boat,  possessed  clearness  of  eye,  frankness 
of  manner  and  earnestness  of  speech.  His  character 
seemed  to  bear  every  test  for  genuineness.  Over  and 
above  all  the  real  significance  of  his  personality  was 
apparent;  it  was  this:  although  engaged  in  an  effort 
at  which  tens  of  thousands  of  men  of  so  called  rank 
and  high  degree  would  have  failed  because  of  their 
lack  of  expertness,  he  was  complete  master  of  the 
task  and  he  more  than  measured  up  to  its  requirements. 


150    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

He  seemed  to  possess  within  his  being  many  unused 
resources  which  might  be  called  out  in  time  of  real 
crisis  in  his  work.  Moreover,  he  appeared  to  be  cool- 
headed,  warm-hearted  and  at  all  times  to  act  under 
the  direction  of  his  best  powers.  He  was  simply  a 
young  man  who  had  had  little  practice  in  the  vanities 
and  superficialities  of  life  and  yet  his  better  self  had 
apparently  been  long  trained  to  come  boldly  forward 
and  apply  its  strength  in  the  performance  of  the  plain 
duties  of  his  rigorous  existence.  In  short,  there  was 
both  an  inspiring  sermon  and  a  profound  system  of 
philosophy  suggested  by  the  conduct  of  this  plain 
young  man. 

How  can  we  make  use  of  this  suggestion  to  the  end 
that  we  may  make  out  a  way  whereby  to  bring  our 
own  better  selves  daily  into  supremacy  ?  The  new  civ- 
ilisation just  dawning  demands  such  a  personal  ref- 
ormation. 

If  the  ordinary  person  would  not  have  so  much  con- 
cern for  making  a  mere  outward  show  of  superiority 
and  worth,  and  would  learn  to  relax  betimes  and  to 
offer  less  stubborn  resistance  to  some  supposed  evil 
person  or  thing  in  his  environment,  and  would  have 
less  fear  of  violating  some  fixed  rule  or  standard  in 
the  home  or  in  society,  and  would  be  willing  to  make 
errors  in  the  name  of  the  Most  High,  he  would  thus 
show  signs  of  being  in  communication  with  his  true 
source  of  power.  If,  moreover,  this  same  person  would 
always  endeavour  to  see  the  best  side  of  the  arduous 
task  or  the  trying  situation,  and  would  act  as  if  that 
best  side  were  coming  into  realisation;  if  he  would 
develop  in  himself  the  superb  habit  of  seeing  that 


REORGANISATION  FROM  WITHIN       151 

the  divine  nature  come  into  supremacy — if  the  one  who 
earnestly  desires  to  find  a  higher  way  of  life  would 
persist  in  doing  these  things  on  every  suitable  occa- 
sion ;  then,  I  say  again  that  he  would  discover  his  inner 
source  of  power,  and  nothing  in  relation  to  his  daily 
life  could,  or  would  try  to,  or  desire  to,  resist  the  truth 
that  is  being  made  manifest  in  and  through  him.  His 
better  self  would  thus  be  made  supreme. 


SPIRITUAL  POISE  IN  WORK 

Why  do  so  many  persons  mentally  pursue  their  work 
or  struggle  with  their  perplexities  during  the  long 
hours  of  the  night  while  they  ought  to  be  relaxed  all 
over  and  wrapped  in  the  peaceful  folds  of  slumber? 
Why  do  so  many  awaken  at  dawn  with  a  burden  of 
nervous  fears  and  a  dread  of  the  duties  of  the  day  to 
follow?  Is  not  all  this  a  result  of  habitually  denying 
the  better  self  the  right  of  leadership  in  the  perform- 
ance of  the  appointed  work  of  the  day?  To  shudder 
at  some  preconceived  error  or  defeat  or  failure  in  rela- 
tion to  the  coming  work  of  the  day — all  this  is  an 
indication  of  an  unorganised  inner  life,  or  of  a  sub- 
merged spiritual  self,  and  an  evidence  of  much  un- 
necessary stress  and  strain.  The  one  who  is  thus 
restrained  has  not  yet  learned  to  realise  that  unfailing 
sense  of  power  which  is  the  peculiar  possession  of  the 
one  who  achieves  his  work  under  the  guidance  of  the 
Immanent  Spirit. 

So  the  person  who  feels  best  and  who  enjoys  his 
work  most  throughout  the  entire  day  is  the  one  who 
is  superior,  and  who  knows  that  he  is  superior,  to  any 


152    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

situation  that  may  arise  and  try  him  during  the  course 
of  that  day.  But  this  superiority  or  bigness  of  dimen- 
sion which  we  are  here  trying  to  understand  is  not  one 
of  avoirdupois  or  physical  prowess  or  mere  intellectual 
attainment.  It  consists  rather  of  a  high  capacity  for 
discerning — in  spite  of  any  manifestations  of  a  lower 
degree — the  divine  natures  of  the  people  about  one, 
and  the  divine  aspect  of  things  as  well.  This  is  what 
might  be  called  the  spiritual  attitude  toward  people 
and  things,  and  the  one  who  has  acquired  it  becomes 
a  centre  of  attraction  and  of  uplift  to  all  who  may 
come  into  the  circle  of  his  influence. 

So  the  person  of  spiritual  poise  becomes  my  truest 
friend  and  helper  by  virtue  of  the  fact  that  through 
his  divine  insight  he  regards  me  with  tender  affection 
and  sympathetic  interest,  so  that  his  mere  presence, 
as  well  as  his  manner,  stimulates  the  best  there  is  in 
me.  On  account  of  his  intrinsic  worth  rather  than 
what  he  knows  or  appears  to  be,  this  true  friend  in- 
vites me  both  to  become  my  highest  and  to  keep  in 
subjection  my  lowest  self.  I  am  then  in  an  attitude 
for  making  real  progress  upon  the  higher  way  of  life, 
for  I  make  myself  open  and  receptive  to  the  forces 
that  emanate  from  the  Divine  Spirit  of  All  Things. 

WHY  THIS  GHOST  OF  DESPAIR? 

But  the  question  arises :  Can  we  make  this  lesson 
practical  to  the  extent  that  it  may  have  application  to 
the  lives  of  high  and  low  alike?  Especially  will  it 
lend  itself  freely  to  the  assistance  of  the  great  class  of 
earnest  souls  who  are  performing  the  common  work 


REORGANISATION  FROM  WITHIN       153 

of  life?  The  greatest  factor  in  the  transformation  of 
this  world  we  live  in  is  work.  Everywhere  we  turn 
we  find  men  and  women,  young  and  old,  with  faces  set 
like  flint  against  the  difficult  and  trying  tasks  of  life, 
bringing  about  the  realisation  of  the  world's  material 
purposes.  But  all  too  often,  as  we  pass  to  and  fro 
among  the  ranks  of  toilers,  there  meets  our  view  the 
tired,  listless  gaze,  or  the  pinched  dejected  countenance 
of  some  despairing  worker  at  life's  loom.  Now  we 
find  it  in  the  person  of  a  great  captain  of  industry, 
now  in  the  form  of  one  delving  in  the  bosom  of  the 
earth,  and  yet  again  it  is  the  distressing  form  of  some 
good  woman  who  is  a  slave  to  the  work  of  the  home. 
Indeed,  this  ghost  of  despair  seems  really  to  be  almost 
no  respecter  of  persons.  High  and  low,  artist  and 
artisan,  believer  and  infidel,  orthodox  and  heterodox — 
all  or  nearly  all  classes  seem  to  have  within  their 
ranks  many  who  are  infected  with  this  insidious  dis- 
ease. 

But  how  can  one  subordinate  his  work,  no  matter 
what  or  how  difficult  it  may  be,  to  the  extent  that  the 
best  there  is  in  him  may  find  full  and  satisfactory 
expression?  A  successful  answer  to  this  question 
would  go  far  toward  spiritualising  the  drudgery  of 
common  labour. 


STRIVE   ONLY   FOR   THE   HIGHEST 

Man  at  his  best  is  a  powerful  instrument  of  achieve- 
ment. The  very  laws  of  nature,  old  and  eternal  as 
Time  himself,  often  well-nigh  seem  to  stand  in  abey- 
ance before  the  human  soul  that  is  kindled  with  the 


154    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

fire  of  the  Living  Spirit.  No  ordinary  obstacle  can 
successfully  confront  him.  He  grows  big  and  strong 
and  powerful  partly  through  and  by  means  of  the 
nourishment  his  divine  nature  receives  from  opposi- 
tion. Does  your  allotted  place  in  life  seem  little  and 
mean  and  narrow?  Then  render  it  grand  and  sub- 
lime by  means  of  your  own  inner  transformation.  Do 
you  whine  and  complain  and  yearn  for  a  position  and 
material  goods  which,  as  you  know,  under  present  con- 
ditions lie  hopelessly  beyond  your  reach  ?  Then  strive 
for  the  high  things  of  the  Spirit,  and  these  material 
objects  will  dwindle  into  insignificance  before  your 
view.  But  do  you  desire  these  worldly  possessions  and 
preferments  for  their  own  sake?  Are  you  certain  that 
your  highest  goal  lies  along  that  way  of  travel  ?  Are 
the  rich  and  great  necessarily  any  closer  to  heaven 
than  yourself?  Can  they  reach  any  nearer  to  the 
stars  ?  Have  they  any  more  room  to  expand  their  souls 
than  you  have? 

And  so  we  should  like  to  urge  a  higher  principle  of 
life  upon  the  world's  workers,  high  and  low,  especially 
upon  all  those  who  feel  themselves  ground  down  by 
hard,  relentless  conditions.  It  is  this:  Cease  longing 
for  the  unattainable  in  the  material  sense  and  culti- 
vate assiduously  your  inner  sense  of  superiority  and 
worth.  The  Immanent  Spirit,  which  dwells  within 
you,  may  be  made  supreme  over  every  ill  or  adverse 
condition.  There  is  no  real  light  ahead  for  the  com- 
mon toiler  except  through  self-mastery. 


REORGANISATION  FROM  WITHIN       155 

WOMEN  MUST  BE  FREE 

It  seems  opportune  here  to  make  a  special  plea  to 
the  great  multitude  of  aspiring,  unselfish  women  who 
are  enslaved  to  the  work  and  drudgery  of  the  home, 
and  to  the  mandates  of  a  heartless,  cramping  code  of 
society.  Need  these  things  be?  Are  the  like  of  you 
not  held  in  bondage  to  two  or  three  ideas  that  seriously 
menace  the  expression  of  your  soul?  Does  not  your 
constant  fear  of  deviating  from  the  exacting  rules  of 
the  home  and  your  little  social  group  render  it  prac- 
tically impossible  for  you  to  please  either  yourself 
or  those  whom  you  would  serve  in  this  way  ?  Can  you 
not  vary  occasionally  from  your  fixed  standard  of  or- 
der in  the  household  and  from  your  set  rule  of  having 
the  meals  just  so,  and  sit  down  in  the  midst  of  some 
disorder  and  confusion  and  relax  all  over  and  expand 
your  being  and  imbibe  from  the  Great  Source  of  All 
Strength  a  full,  free  measure  of  psychic  power?  Only 
once  become  satisfied  from  this  fountain  of  inner 
strength  and  the  little,  mean  and  insignificant  things 
that  rule  the  life  to  which  you  have  been  enslaved,  will 
appear  unimportant. 

But  the  foregoing  admonition  does  not  mean  that 
one  should  in  any  true  sense  neglect  his  allotted  work. 
It  means  rather  that  this  work  must  be  subordinated 
to  the  higher  spiritual  nature.  In  the  old  way  the 
work  starves  and  crushes  the  spirit.  In  the  new  way 
the  spirit  dominates  and  puts  new  life  and  meaning 
into  the  work. 


156    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

THE  METHOD  SUMMARISED 

But  how  can  the  ordinary  busy  person  acquire  this 
psychic  power,  you  ask.  The  rules  therefore  are  so 
simple  that  you  may  be  inclined  to  believe  them  of 
little  worth,  and  less  inclined  to  practise  them.  They 
have  already  been  implied  strongly  in  what  has  been 
urged  above.  In  order  to  summarise  and  at  the  same 
time  to  add  a  few  statements,  we  might  enumerate : 

1.  The  beginning  of  psychic  wisdom  lies  in  the 
proper  caretaking  of  the  body.     One  must  be  clean 
in  person,  modest  in  regard  to  his  wearing  apparel, 
regular  and  moderate  in  habits  of  diet  and  sleep,  tak- 
ing plenty  of  outdoor  exercise.     That  is,  one  must 
have  what  might  be  called  pure,  healthy  bodily  tone, 
if  he  is  to  acquire  a  full  measure  of  spiritual  energy. 

2.  Be  faithful  in  the  performance  of  your  work, 
but  be  willing  to  take  the  consequences  of  leaving  a 
part  of  it  undone  rather  than  to  overstrain  to  the  point 
of  great  fatigue.    Do  not  try  to  cover  up  your  mistakes 
and  shortcomings  in  the  presence  of  others,  so  long  as 
you  are  living  your  highest,  for  other  souls,  seeing 
your  frankness  and  your  frailties,  will  be  inspired  to 
renew  their  hold  upon  life. 

3.  Keep  in  touch  with  the  great  living  world  with- 
out, especially  with  some  of  its  most  progressive  and 
democratic  individuals.    No  matter  what  your  station, 
there  will  always  be  some  one  to  whom  you  can  appro- 
priately and  effectively  administer  help  and  encourage- 
ment.   The  great  current  of  Psychic  Life  cannot  flow 
freely  into  your  being  until  you  have  made  room  for 
it  by  pouring  out  from  your  present  inner  source  the 


REORGANISATION  FROM  WITHIN       157 

best  that  you  may  have  to  spare  in  form  of  love  and 
kindly  consideration. 

4.  Again,  no  matter  how  high  your  station  in  life, 
there  will  always  be  some  one  about  you  who  will  be 
your  superior  in  respect  to  wealth,  or  freedom,  or 
personal  attractiveness.     Learn  not  to  envy  any  such, 
always  remembering  that  there  is  more  than  enough  of 
the  high  things  of  the  Spirit  for  all  who  are  prepared 
to  partake  of  them.     By  learning  to  take  real  secret 
delight  in  the  merited  promotion  or  advancement  of 
your  associates,  you  will  acquire  a  new  mode  of  ex- 
panding and  enriching  your  own  being. 

5.  There  must  come  into  your  life  daily  something 
that  will  draw  you  away  from  yourself  and  your  work. 
As  to  how  this  result  is  to  be  brought  about,  that  will 
be  determined  by  your  temperament  and  environment. 
It  might  be  accomplished  through  the  reading  of  a 
poem    or    some    other    inspiring    literary    selection; 
through  the  observation  of  the  things  of  nature  at  early 
morning  or  the  starry  heavens  after  nightfall ;  through 
conversation  with  some  one  who  is  maturer  in  his 
psychic  development  than  yourself,  and  who  therefore 
sees  more  clearly  than  you  do  the  spiritual  nature  of 
people  and  things;  through  ministering  to  the  needs 
of  the  sick  or  the  hungry  or  the  despairing  or  the  aged, 
as  was  suggested  above. 

6.  Then  learn  at  times  the  meaning  of  non-resist- 
ance as  well  as  of  that  of  aggressiveness.    Be  true  and 
faithful  and  honest  in  your  efforts,  and  trust  the  out- 
come to  the  disposition  of  the  Immanent  Spirit.     Do 
not  expect  to  win  battles  so  much  by  fighting  your 
hardest,  but  more  by  at  all  times  loving  your  utmost. 


158    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

Nourish  your  mind  more  habitually  on  that  which  is 
spiritual.  Forgive  and  forget,  as  far  as  possible,  the 
erroneous  past  in  yourself  and  others,  and  thus  have 
more  time  to  gather  living  strength  for  the  future. 
Merely  for  the  sake  of  practice,  go  to  sleep  every  night 
for  a  week  with  your  mind  repeating  and  your  soul 
reverberating  some  such  literary  gem  as  the  Ninety- 
first  Psalm,  and  so  learn  the  gospel  of  relaxation — 
the  secret  of  letting  go  all  over  and  thus  resting  and 
recuperating  a  hundred  little  muscles  you  otherwise 
hold  tense  during  the  night. 

7.  Get  up  at  morning  with  a  prayer  upon  your  lips, 
and  take  as  a  text  for  the  day  something  like  Isaiah 
Ix.  i :    "Arise,  shine !  for  thy  light  is  come,  and  the 
glory  of  the  Lord  is  risen  upon  thee!"    Say  this  over 
in  your  mind  until  it  sings  itself  into  your  whole  being, 
and  you  will  in  time  feel  welling  up  from  within  a 
strange,  unspeakable  power  which  will  tide  you  buoy- 
antly over  every  difficulty  that  may  threaten  to  beset 
your  pathway  during  the  day  that  is  dawning. 

8.  Some  have  called  the  practices  outlined  above 
self-hypnotism,  others  have  called  them  auto-sugges- 
tion.   It  matters  little  as  to  the  name.    Do  not  merely 
give  mental  assent  and  try  them  once  or  twice,  but 
carry  them  out  determinately.    Although  perhaps  me- 
chanical at  first,  they  will  in  time  become  easy  and 
natural  and  life-giving.    If  there  be  such  a  thing  pos- 
sible as  the  acquisition  of  psychic  power  on  the  part  of 
the  reader,  it  will  come  to  him  gradually  as  the  result 
of  mental  attitudes  carefully  selected,  and  persistently 
held  to  and  acted  out  as  nearly  as  possible,  on  every 
suitable  occasion. 


XV 

MAKING  LIFE  WORTH  WHILE 

What  is  your  attitude  toward  life  as  a  whole  ?  Does 
it  seem  full  of  goodness  and  promise,  or  does  it  con- 
sist of  some  good  and  some  evil  ?  It  must  be  insisted 
that  your  attitude  toward  the  whole  of  life  is  going 
to  have  much  to  do  with  your  value  as  a  member  of 
society.  Is  life  really  worth  while?  Some  will  say, 
'That  depends  on  circumstances,"  and  by  this  they 
mean  that  it  depends  on  whether  or  not  they  get  cer- 
tain preferments  and  secure  the  satisfaction  of  certain 
desires.  But  is  the  worth  of  life  resting  upon  such 
an  unstable  foundation  ?  Is  there  not  a  more  substan- 
tial groundwork  of  living — something  that  is  certain 
and  secure,  and  something  that  will  hold  out  an  en- 
ticing reward  for  all  worthy  striving  and  sacrifice? 
If  this  matter  be  regarded  from  the  right  angle,  it 
would  appear  that  the  question  must  be  answered  af- 
firmatively. With  the  firm  conviction  that  the  one 
who  can  so  answer  this  question  will  have  a  peculiar 
power  and  advantage  in  the  race  of  life  over  the  one 
who  is  inclined  to  answer  it  negatively,  let  us  now  try 
to  set  forth,  in  some  detail,  certain  of  the  attitudes 
of  the  one  of  optimistic  faith. 

159 


160    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

HUMAN    POTENTIALITIES   INFINITE 

At  birth  the  ordinary  human  life  is  practically  infi- 
nite in  potentialities.  The  life  that  we  now  live  is 
but  a  mere  fragment  of  what  it  might  be,  and  of  what 
life  in  the  future  certainly  will  become  after  we  have 
once  acquired  the  higher  art  of  living.  The  average 
human  infant  has  within  him  at  birth  a  nervous  mech- 
anism possessing  possibilities  of  development,  both  in 
amount  and  complexity,  far  beyond  that  of  any  mem- 
ber of  the  race  now  living.  Millions  of  nerve-cells  are 
there  all  ready  to  be  developed  into  specialised  groups 
through  experience.  But  our  span  of  existence  is  as 
yet  too  brief  and  fragmentary  to  admit  of  our  devel- 
oping any  considerable  portion  of  them.  During  a 
vast  period  of  time  man  has  apparently  been  at  work 
lengthening  out  the  term  of  his  youth,  until  now  it  is 
a  matter  of  twenty  or  more  years.  This  period  of  in- 
fancy, and  of  concomitant  nerve  plasticity  and  educa- 
bility,  is  briefest  in  the  case  of  the  races  and  of  the 
individuals  of  least  intellectual  advancement.  A  sur- 
vey of  human  history  will  show,  so  it  seems,  not  only 
that  this  important  period  of  nerve  growth  has  been 
very  slowly  lengthened  with  the  rising  scale  of  intel- 
ligence, but  also  that  there  is  all  the  time  being  dis- 
covered a  better  method  of  developing  character  during 
this  period  of  plasticity. 

After  the  first  score  of  years — or  a  few  more — have 
been  spent,  the  individual  is  compelled  by  force  of 
circumstances  to  discontinue  his  general  development 
and  to  specialise  in  some  particular  field.  But  it  is 
nevertheless  true  that  if  there  had  been  sufficient  time, 


MAKING  LIFE  WORTH  WHILE        161 

or  if  the  plasticity  of  the  nerves  had  continued  long 
enough,  he  might  have  reached  a  score  of  different 
kinds  of  high  attainments  for  each  of  which  he  pos- 
sessed from  infancy  more  than  enough  of  brain  and 
nerve  structures.  The  ordinary  person  must  abandon 
the  building  up  of  these  many  embryonic  cell  struc- 
tures. But  after  he  has  singled  out  only  one  of  his 
aptitudes  and  developed  it  as  a  specialty  throughout  a 
long  life,  he  feels  that  the  possibilities  latent  within 
this  single  centre  are  still  infinite. 


THE   JOY   OF   LIVING 

Now,  all  this  ought  to  cheer  and  encourage  the  ordi- 
nary traveller  upon  life's  journey.  If  one  can  only 
be  made  to  realise  early  enough  the  possibility  of  tak- 
ing his  life  and  destiny  into  his  own  hands  and  of 
bringing  to  a  high  state  of  perfection  one  or  more  of 
these  infinite  potentialities — all  this  to  be  accomplished 
merely  by  and  through  his  own  striving — surely  he  will 
the  more  appreciate  the  joy  of  living.  Who  is  it  that 
despairs  and  contemplates  giving  up  other  than  the 
one  who  imagines  the  path  of  life  to  be  insurmountably 
closed  by  some  particular  obstruction?  But  he  who 
has  once  learned  to  go  on  fearlessly  is  in  possession  of 
a  great  secret ;  namely,  that  there  are  many  interesting 
ways  around  the  greatest  obstacle  that  may  be  thrown 
into  one's  path. 

An  authority  who  has  long  dealt  with  the  despairing 
and  the  downcast  reports  in  many  instances  as  the 
chief  cause  of  the  trouble  some  unrealised  selfish  ambi- 
tion to  shine  or  to  possess  a  thing  not  deserved.  So 


162    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

the  person  who  would  find  the  greatest  amount  of  joy 
and  inspiration  in  common  existence  must  refuse  to 
believe  his  chief  purpose  in  life  to  be  merely  that  of 
exacting  from  the  outer  world  all  the  good  it  will 
yield  him;  and  he  must  learn  to  appreciate  the  great, 
vitalising  practice  of  striving  to  give  back  to  the  world 
more  good  than  he  receives  from  it.  Indeed,  herein 
we  may  find  the  chief  point  of  distinction  between  the 
despondent  soul  and  the  one  enjoying  the  abiding  con- 
viction that  human  life  is  a  thing  of  tremendous  con- 
sequence. 

THE  ENDLESS  QUEST  OF  GOD 

It  is  difficult  for  the  despairing  soul  or  even  the 
atheist  to  get  around  the  thought  that  there  is  a  subtle, 
but  mighty,  immaterial  power  ever  at  work  in  the 
universe  about  us.  The  scientist  is  desirous  of  dis- 
covering the  real  facts,  so  he  pushes  the  quest  to  the 
furthest  possible  limit  in  an  effort  to  get  at  some- 
thing solid  and  substantial.  He  has  broken  up  the  old 
molecule,  on  which  we  rested  our  physical  hypothesis. 
He  has  separated  this  into  two  thousand  fragments 
and  has  called  these  smaller  particles  ions  or  electrons, 
but  he  no  longer  lays  claim  to  having  anything  ulti- 
mate. What  he  has  discovered,  however,  is  that  this 
and  all  other  quests  are  the  unmistakable  evidences  of 
some  mysterious,  non-substantial  power  at  work  hold- 
ing things  together,  or  getting  things  done. 

For  example,  notwithstanding  all  our  modern 
knowledge  of  applying  electrical  energy,  we  know 
nothing  whatever  of  the  ultimate  nature  of  this  force. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  are  very  little  concerned  about 


MAKING  LIFE  WORTH  WHILE        163 

its  absolute  character.  What  we  most  desire  to  learn 
is  the  law  whereby  it  works  so  that  we  may  use  it 
effectively  in  our  affairs.  Now,  this  kind  of  knowl- 
edge is  highly  satisfying,  for  it  helps  us  to  define  more 
fully  our  every-day  experiences.  And  so  believing — 
as  most  of  us  do — that  there  is  a  God  of  the  universe, 
we  should  perhaps  agree  that  it  is  more  or  less  futile 
for  any  man  to  try  to  find  out  His  infinite  nature. 
However,  an  effort  to  understand  the  laws  whereby 
He  works  proves  to  be  both  profitable  and  interesting 
— a  quest  which  tends  to  make  life  altogether  worth 
while. 

THE   NATURE   OF   MODERN   SCIENCE 

A  plant  comes  forth  out  of  the  cold,  apparently  life- 
less earth,  and  blossoms  and  bears  fruit ;  a  mighty  vol- 
cano breaks  out  on  the  mountainside  and  carries  before 
it  with  terrific  force  a  tremendous  weight  of  matter; 
a  man  who  has  been  pursuing  a  certain  reprehensible 
course  of  conduct  for  half  a  lifetime  suddenly  reverses 
himself  and  places  high  value  upon  the  types  of 
thought  and  action  once  considered  by  him  to  be  of  no 
worth.  Now,  it  might  be  insisted  by  some  that  these 
are  merely  three  different  manifestations  of  the  same 
mysterious  power,  namely  God.  But  this  does  not 
help  us  to  understand  what  God  really  is.  However, 
we  need  not  despair  on  account  of  this  negative  result; 
for  a  careful,  scientific  consideration  of  the  three  phe- 
nomena just  mentioned  will  reveal  much  that  is  both 
interesting  and  profitable  for  our  lives.  Especially  is 
this  true  if  we  study  each  from  the  point  of  view  of 
the  particular  science  within  which  it  falls.  We  do 


164    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

not  merely  stand  in  awe  before  the  processes  of  na- 
ture, as  was  once  commonly  done,  but  we  set  about 
to  find  an  explanation  of  them  in  terms  of  their  imme- 
diate antecedents  and  consequents.  This  is  distinctly 
the  method  of  modern  science,  and,  if  conducted  prop- 
erly, it  is  in  a  high  degree  satisfying,  for  it  broadens 
our  conception  of  the  matters  of  our  common  expe- 
rience. 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF  A  GOOD  LIFE 

In  our  search  for  solid,  unquestionable  facts  in  hu- 
man experience,  we  cannot  afford  to  overlook  the  posi- 
tive influence  that  emanates  from  a  good  life.  Here 
is  something  that  seems  to  be  operative  at  all  times. 
Take,  for  example,  the  venerable  Dr.  Eliot,  ex-presi- 
dent of  Harvard.  Go  into  almost  any  part  of  New 
England  and  you  will  hear  him  spoken  of  by  the  com- 
mon people  as  "our  first  citizen."  "A  name  to  conjure 
by,"  they  often  say.  The  veneration  in  which  he  is 
held  by  the  public  was  illustrated  on  an  occasion  when 
this  eminent  American  addressed  a  mixed  audience  in 
Memorial  Hall.  The  moment  he  entered  the  chapel 
the  entire  congregation  arose  spontaneously,  and  the 
heartiest  applause  attended  him  until  he  had  bowed 
acknowledgments  several  times,  and  was  seated.  Dur- 
ing the  course  of  the  address  the  attention  was  rapt 
and  unbroken,  and  the  applause  was  surprisingly  long 
continued.  Now,  as  we  may  understand  the  matter, 
there  is  somehow  connected  with  this  man  a  power 
that  makes  for  righteousness,  a  force  that  has  a  subtle 
influence  in  shaping  the  lives  of  others.  And  yet  this 
peculiar  energy  is  not  constituted  of  any  material  part 


MAKING  LIFE  WORTH  WHILE        165 

of  the  man,  for  it  works  without  regard  to  distance, 
and  it  will  doubtless  continue  long  after  he  has  passed 
away. 

But  it  is  not  really  necessary  to  regard  a  peculiar 
personal  influence  as  being  resident  in  only  a  few 
great  characters.  For  example,  it  emanates  from  the 
typical  devoted  mother  in  the  home  and  actually 
changes  the  course  of  many  a  life.  In  fact,  human 
kindness  and  sympathy  are  much  more  common  vir- 
tues than  some  of  us  seem  to  suspect,  but  we  are 
touched  by  these  virtues  only  when  we  make  ourselves 
open  to  them,  or  when  we  are  looking  for  them.  So, 
here  is  another  actual,  positive  power  that  makes  for 
righteousness,  one  that  helps  to  make  life  eminently 
worth  while.  Human  kindness  is  everywhere  a  fact. 
It  is  often  present  even  in  the  case  of  the  depraved 
and  the  low  born,  if  we  only  know  how  to  look  for 
it  and  draw  it  out  and  use  it. 


PRACTICAL  ADVANTAGES  OF  OPTIMISM 

Wherefore,  considering  all  the  foregoing  facts,  we 
feel  warranted  in  making  the  statement  that  the  one 
who  believes  human  life  to  be  unquestionably  a  thing 
of  much  worth  has  a  tremendous  advantage  over  the 
one  who  does  not.  But  it  is  selfish  to  sit  back  and 
expect  the  good  and  the  joy-in-life  to  come  to  one. 
There  must  be  a  quest  of  happiness  and  that  through 
a  striving  to  find  out  the  many  interesting  secrets 
which  life  holds  in  store  for  us  all  and  not  merely  for 
some  of  us.  To  know  that  whatever  our  suffering  or 
loss,  millions  of  others  have  endured  like  privations; 


166    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

to  know  that  whatever  our  joy  or  triumph,  countless 
numbers  of  the  great  human  procession  have  experi- 
enced these  pleasures;  to  know  that  the  unmeasured 
potentialities  within  us  suggest  eloquently  an  infinite 
period  of  development,  and  to  strike  out  boldly  for 
that  infinitude — this  is  to  make  life  seem  altogether 
worth  while. 


XVI 
THE  SPIRIT  OF  SACRIFICE 

When  the  world  war  struck  us  we  Americans  were 
living  spoiled  and  pampered  lives.  The  vast  majority 
of  the  people  were  chasing  the  rainbow  of  sensual 
enjoyment  and  were  inclined  to  a  sort  of  flippant  atti- 
tude toward  the  great  spiritual  verities.  The  war  has 
humbled  us  temporarily,  but  can  we  preserve  the  les- 
son? What  can  the  individual  do,  or  have  done  for 
him,  that  will  save  him  from  the  sin  of  selfishness? 
How  can  he  acquire  the  humble  spirit  of  unselfishness 
and  sacrifice  and  yet  do  a  positive  and  effective  work 
in  the  world? 

THE   LESSONS   OF  EXPERIENCE 

One  starts  out  in  this  life  claiming  everything  in 
sight  as  his  own,  but  usually  discovers  in  the  end  that 
he  does  not  own  anything.  As  we  grow  older  we  learn 
that  one  of  the  most  expensive  characteristics  a  per- 
son can  have  is  selfishness,  while  unselfishness,  or 
what  might  be  called  rational  self-sacrifice,  are  almost 
sure  to  carry  their  own  reward  with  them.  Much  of 
the  real  joy  of  living  seems  to  depend  on  our  having 
done  some  sacrificial  act  in  behalf  of  the  sick,  the 
needy,  or  the  downcast.  When  we  minister  unto 

167 


i68    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

others  out  of  the  depths  of  the  divinity  in  our  natures 
there  springs  up  within  us  a  strange,  new  sense  of 
the  .closeness  of  our  relation  to  them. 

This  inner  sense  of  worth  is  not  fully  acquired, 
however,  without  a  variety  of  experiences  of  trial 
and  error.  From  the  time  of  his  childhood  on  up  to 
maturity  one  needs  to  have  much  actual  practice  in 
trying  to  get  things  for  his  own  selfish  sake  as  well 
as  for  the  sake  of  those  he  can  help,  so  that  out  of 
it  all  he  may  learn  the  lesson  of  his  truest  and  best 
relation  to  others.  Unfortunately  many  growing 
young  lives,  as  a  result  of  pampering  and  over-care, 
never  learn  the  beautiful  meaning  of  self-sacrifice. 
This  form  of  ignorance  is  still  too  common  among 
the  so  called  educated. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  forms  of  self-sacrifice 
is  that  of  vicarious  suffering.  The  world  is  full  of 
it.  You  may  or  may  not  regard  as  true  the  story 
of  the  vicarious  atonement  of  Jesus  Christ  upon  the 
cross  of  Calvary:  the  agony  of  that  last  dark  hour; 
the  matchless  resignation  to  what  seemed  an  ignomini- 
ous fate;  the  final  cry  of  despair  as  the  victim  was 
about  to  yield  up  the  last  breath  of  a  sad,  serene  life; 
his  belief  that  in  some  way  the  wrongs  done  by  his 
fellow  men  were  being  expiated  by  that  final  act  of 
sublime  sacrifice.  But  all  these  things  are  distinct- 
ively human,  and  they  appeal  to  the  deepest  and  tru- 
est that  is  in  us  all.  Suppose,  for  argument's  sake, 
that  this  story  is  mere  fiction.  It  is  still  beautiful 
and  wonderful  and  inspiring.  Why?  Because  it  typi- 
fies in  intense  form  a  tragic  aspect  of  our  common 
existence. 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  SACRIFICE  169 

HOW  MAY  WE  SUFFER  ? 

But  we  may  see  this  undeserved  suffering  all  around 
us.  The  mother  must  go  by  the  brink  of  the  grave 
in  order  that  her  child  may  be  born.  She  has  ideals 
of  conduct  and  attainment  for  him  and  must  be  heart- 
broken at  every  point  of  his  failure  to  attain  these 
high  standards.  In  the  case  of  the  wayward,  dissi- 
pated son  she  must  suffer  the  ruthless  crucifixion  of 
her  every  fond  aspiration  in  his  behalf.  Another  per- 
son has  inherited  through  the  debaucheries  of  a 
drunken  father  a  weak,  deformed  body,  or  a  predis- 
position towards  crime  and  sensuality.  Quite  as  fre- 
quently we  may  find  a  group  of  beautiful-spirited 
children  and  their  refined  mother  suffering  the  dis- 
grace and  humiliation  brought  upon  them  by  a  crim- 
inal or  inebriated  father. 

The  entire  world  has  been  recently  engaged  in  a 
struggle  for  democracy.  But  why  should  innocent 
millions  die  in  this  conflict  while  other  millions,  no 
less  deserving,  live  on  to  enjoy  the  benefits?  "He 
paid  the  supreme  sacrifice" — this  has  been  the  record 
of  the  close  of  many  a  young  soldier's  life.  But  it 
seems  that  the  honour  of  a  "glorious  death"  is  ex- 
tremely inadequate  as  a  reward  for  such  a  tragic 
affair,  unless  we  all  as  individuals  in  some  way  par- 
ticipate in  the  suffering.  Must  we  not  strive  to  make 
vicarious  suffering  in  some  measure  a  rule  of  our 
lives  and  thus  lift  a  part  of  the  overburden  off  the 
shoulders  of  others?  Unless  these  hero  dead  are  all 
our  own,  they  have  died  in  vain. 

Now,  while  we  may  not  naturally  desire  this  condi- 


170    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

tion  of  life  for  ourselves,  we  are  nevertheless  often 
charmed  and  made  better  by  the  conduct  of  those  par- 
ticipating in  it.  Moreover,  it  seems  necessary  that 
the  world  furnish  us  our  quota  of  vicarious  suffering 
in  order  to  soften  and  subdue  our  coarser  natures. 
Although  the  attending  agony  and  the  disappointment 
are  often  very  intense,  they  are  almost  certain  to 
carry  with  them  an  ample  reward  in  the  form  of  a 
beautiful  humility  of  spirit,  of  a  recurrent  ecstasy  of 
longing,  or  a  heroic  resignation  to  the  might  of  one's 
destiny.  Some  of  the  mothers  who  lost  their  sons  in 
the  war  have  given  us  a  beautiful  and  inspiring  ex- 
ample of  spiritual  fortitude. 


VOLUNTARY   SACRIFICE   ENNOBLING 

But,  after  all,  the  most  beautiful  and  ennobling  kind 
of  sacrifice  is  that  which  is  made  voluntarily  out  of 
the  fulness  of  a  good  heart.  However,  this  can  come 
to  pass  only  after  we  ourselves  have  had  many  trying 
experiences.  If  we  have  longed  and  suffered  and 
failed,  if  we  have  been  bruised  and  beaten  and  other- 
wise sorely  afflicted,  and  if,  after  all  this,  we  have  suc- 
ceeded and  triumphed  and  finally  gained  our  physical 
and  mental  poise,  we  are  then  in  some  measure  pre- 
pared to  make  rational  sacrifices  for  the  great  throng 
of  needy  fellow  creatures  around  us.  It  is  not  a  little 
helpful,  also,  for  one  to  try  to  see  the  world  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  criminal,  the  depraved  and  the 
downtrodden — to  visit  the  saloons,  the  slums  and  all 
the  other  places  where  the  weaklings  and  the  under- 
lings are  groping  so  hopelessly  about  for  the  light,  or 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  SACRIFICE  171 

drifting  with  so  little  thought  of  their  own  regenera- 
tion; in  short,  to  go  in  upon  every  variety  of  dark- 
ness and  despair,  an  uninvited  guest,  in  order  to  ac- 
quire a  fuller  measure  of  sympathy  for  those  who  are 
down  in  the  world. 

A  very  peculiar  sense  of  the  presence  of  God  fills 
the  heart  of  the  one  who  visits  the  sick  and  the  sor- 
rowing and  the  other  classes  of  more  deserving  per- 
sons who  are  temporarily  cast  down  and  afflicted.  To 
speak  a  word  of  comfort  and  good  cheer  to  some  aged 
one  who  has  been  bereft  of  a  lifelong  companion,  to 
become  a  ministering  angel  in  some  humble  home 
where  a  devoted  mother  has  almost  prostrated  herself 
through  sleepless  watching  at  the  bedside  of  a  little 
sick  child,  to  mingle  tears  of  sympathy  and  compas- 
sion with  the  mourners  at  the  bier  of  a  dear,  departed 
member  of  their  own  household — these  are  the  rare 
opportunities  for  giving  good  and  getting  good  that 
may  be  found  by  all  who  seek  to  beautify  their  own 
lives  through  the  spirit  of  sacrifice.  And  these  expe- 
riences constitute  a  legitimate,  if  not  a  necessary,  part 
of  the  preparation  of  the  one  who  is  called  to  the 
high  office  of  fellowship  in  a  genuine  democracy. 

KNOW  THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  TOILER 

Again,  the  spirit  of  sacrifice  is  not  well  proportioned 
in  one  until  he  has  rightly  understood  the  mind  and 
spirit  of  those  who  work  in  fields,  factories,  mines, 
and  the  like.  And  one  is  fortunate  indeed  if,  some 
time  during  his  life,  he  has  been  a  full-fledged  member 
of  the  ranks  of  those  who  labour  faithfully  and  earn- 


172    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

estly  in  one  of  the  world's  great  productive  industries. 
It  is  only  by  means  of  this  actual  experience  that  one 
can  appreciate  the  strong,  sturdy  character  of  the  till- 
ers of  the  soil,  the  carvers  of  wood  and  the  hewers  of 
stone;  or  the  admirable  womanliness  of  the  great 
throng  of  quiet,  unassuming  home-makers  who  per- 
form in  person  the  manifold  duties  of  the  common 
household. 

Thus  to  know  through  a  variety  of  seasoning  expe- 
riences the  conscious  processes  of  all  classes  of  toilers 
up  life's  steep  and  rugged  way,  is  to  appreciate  the 
fact  that  they,  like  all  of  us,  have  their  hopeful,  joy- 
ous anticipations  and  their  times  of  triumph,  as  well 
as  their  share  of  trial  and  disappointment.  And  in 
proportion  as  we  learn  to  live  amicably  and  on  terms 
of  a  spiritual  good  fellowship  with  these  noble  sons 
and  daughters  of  men,  and  to  find  pleasure  in  minis- 
tering unto  them  as  the  Spirit  of  All  Things  may  give 
us  direction,  so  we  feel  prepared  to  live  in  a  world 
democracy. 

POWER   FROM   REPOSE 

The  civilised  portion  of  the  world  is  now  occupied 
chiefly  by  strenuous  people  who  are  constantly  over- 
taxing their  nervous  energy.  Just  now  the  rush  to 
reorganise  the  world's  work  as  taught  by  the  lessons 
of  the  war  makes  the  nerve  strain  unusually  tense. 
Many  are  dying  prematurely  as  a  result  of  this  strain, 
while  others  are  being  rendered  more  or  less  ineffi- 
cient by  it.  There  are  many  worthy  persons,  inclined 
to  be  altruistic,  whose  intended  good  deeds  are  all 
sapped  away  by  the  stress  of  attempting  to  carry  on 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  SACRIFICE  173 

their  daily  affairs  too  hurriedly.  So  there  was  per- 
haps never  a  greater  need  of  some  specific  method  of 
daily  regaining  bodily  poise  than  now.  Two  classes 
of  persons  who  are  suffering  most  from  this  over- 
strain are  the  mothers  and  the  school  teachers  of  the 
land.  Modern  conditions  tend  to  exact  more  from 
them  than  they  are  normally  able  to  bear.  What  is  a 
possible  remedy? 

The  habit  of  poise  is  the  only  hope  of  relief.  By 
means  of  this  acquired  art  we  may  be  enabled  to  work 
hard  and  fast  without  becoming  overexcited  or  hurry- 
ing too  much.  The  question  is  simply  whether  one  is 
to  drive  his  work,  or  let  it  drive  him.  In  the  latter 
case  there  is  always  an  accompaniment  of  despair,  a 
strain  which  wears  out  and  finally  kills  the  body. 
The  necessity  of  making  the  next  move  always  finds 
the  despairing  mind  not  quite  prepared  for  it.  A 
tremendous  waste  of  nervous  energy  results.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  mentally  poised  worker  is  prepared 
through  repose  of  spirit  and  intelligent  forethought 
to  meet  every  ordinary  emergency.  He  conserves  and 
replenishes  his  nerve  force  even  while  he  is  hardest 
at  work. 

Finally,  while  we  as  individuals  might  indeed  refine 
our  spiritual  natures  by  seeking  to  bear  sacrificially 
our  full  share  of  all  the  burdens  and  sufferings  which 
fall  to  the  lot  of  common  mortals,  we  must  be  on 
guard  lest  we  turn  our  altruism  into  a  suicidal  tragedy. 
To  make  our  existence  full  and  complete  we  must  pass 
through  all  the  larger  epochs  of  human  failure  and 
loss;  and  then  we  must  find  a  higher  law  of  life  by 
which  to  assuage  our  own  sorrow.  This  greatest  re- 


174    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

naissance  of  all  the  ages  is  certain  to  demand  that  we 
develop  a  certain  and  reliable  rule  for  the  practice  of 
self-poise  and  composure  after  we  have  passed  through 
the  agony  of  suffering  and  sacrifice.  Who  will  give 
us  such  a  rule? 


XVII 

OPTIMISM  AS  COMMON  SENSE 

We  have  urged  that  the  world  was  tripped  and 
finally  thrown  down  by  wrong  thinking.  National 
pessimism,  as  we  may  characterise  it,  was  the  moun- 
tain which  rolled  down  upon  humanity  with  crushing 
effect.  A  hateful,  despicable  opinion  of  ordinary 
mankind  was  the  satanic  cause.  So,  too,  countless 
individuals  have  literally  borne  themselves  down  with 
the  weight  of  their  habitual  pessimism  as  to  their 
own  abilities.  The  new  age  demands  a  specific  antidote 
for  the  pessimism  of  the  masses  and  of  the  individual. 
Every  man  needs  a  rule  whereby  he  may  in  a  rational 
manner  think  of  himself  more  highly  than  he  seems 
to  deserve  in  order  that  he  may  actually  raise  himself 
by  the  force  of  his  optimism. 

THREE  INTERESTING  GROUPS 

In  regard  to  the  world  and  its  possible  betterment, 
the  people  fall  into  at  least  three  groups.  First,  there 
is  the  extreme  optimist — usually  a  cheerful,  attractive 
personality,  who  serenely  folds  his  arms  and  waits  for 
some  power,  real  or  imaginary,  to  reduce  the  more 
or  less  chaotic  condition  of  affairs  to  one  of  harmony. 
j  He  is  sometimes  so  extreme  in  his  views  as  to  close 

.75 


176    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

his  eyes  to  what  we  ordinarily  regard  as  a  distressing 
situation  and  affirm  positively  some  such  statement  as 
"There  is  no  evil,"  or  'There  is  no  sickness."  Second, 
there  is  that  opposite  extremist,  the  pessimist,  who  as 
stoutly  affirms  that  the  whole  world  is  out  of  joint, 
and  that  disappointment,  or  distress,  or  death,  or  some 
other  dire  evil  lurks  at  every  turn  in  the  pathway  of 
life.  He  is  the  modern  counterpart  of  the  old-fash- 
ioned, sour-dispositioned,  vale-of-tears  churchman 
who  regarded  this  world  as  but  a  place  of  pain  and 
penance.  Third,  there  is  the  active  mediator  between 
the  two,  one  who  beholds  both  good  and  evil  in  our 
common  affairs  of  life,  and  who  regards  the  world  as 
growing  gradually  better — the  latter  fact  being  the 
result  of  analysable,  contributing  causes. 

As  was  suggested  above,  we  have  no  quarrel  with 
the  extreme  laissez-faire  optimist.  His  chronic  cheer- 
fulness contributes  not  a  little  good  to  society,  infect- 
ing as  it  does  the  over-despairing  moods  of  many  oth- 
ers; while  his  habitual  healthy-mindedness  adds  meas- 
urably to  his  bodily  health  and  his  lease  of  life.  Not 
more  willingly  would  we  dispute  with  the  extreme 
pessimist,  for  he  is  probably  but  speaking  the  words 
revealed  by  his  own  discorded  nerves.  If  we  were  to 
attempt  to  improve  the  condition  of  either  of  these 
radicalists,  it  would  not  be  by  means  of  contention  or 
disputation  but  rather  by  means  of  studying  the  whole 
environment,  past  and  present,  of  each.  But  we  are 
now  approaching  the  central  idea  of  this  chapter. 


OPTIMISM  AS  COMMON  SENSE  177 

THE    CENTRAL    PROBLEM 

After  having  found  within  ourselves  some  measure 
of  psychic  power,  having  learned  how  to  acquire  and 
conserve  it,  the  question  now  arises :  How  can  we  put 
this  splendid,  life-giving  force  to  a  practical  use  in  re- 
lation to  surroundings  that  are  admittedly  trying,  if 
not  well-nigh  baffling?  Let  us  call  this  method  com- 
mon sense  optimism,  and  define  it  briefly  as  meaning, 
to  face  an  actual  situation  cheerfully  and  courageously 
and  to  attempt  in  a  thoughtful  manner  to  make  it  bet- 
ter. It  has  its  most  fitting  illustration  in  the  very 
modern  method  of  dealing  scientifically  with  the  child 
or  the  youth  that  is  any  wise  delinquent  in  his  acts. 
For  ages  society  moved  on,  regarding  all  evil-doers 
as  predestined  by  an  unyielding  inheritance  to  a  life 
of  wrong  and  depredation,  while  it  put  them  out  of 
the  way  by  the  quickest  and  easiest  means,  simply  in 
the  interest  of  its  own  protection.  This  was  the  ex- 
treme, pessimistic  view,  based  chiefly  on  ignorance 
and  prejudice.  Then  came  a  period  of  tolerance — 
in  the  minds  of  many — and  a  disposition  to  call  the 
evil-acting — especially  children — by  certain  euphoni- 
ous names  and  to  affirm  that  "all  is  good." 

Now,  it  is  admittedly  a  commendable  beginning,  in 
case  a  boy  lies,  or  steals,  or  plays  truant,  to  call  him 
"good"  and  "noble,"  with  the  mental  reservation  that 
this  goodness  and  nobleness  is  latent  within  him  and 
that  these  excellent  qualities  are  to  be  brought  out 
by  means  of  judicious  and  persistent  training.  But 
to  stop  with  the  pleasing  "affirmation"  and  to  fold 
one's  hands  complacently,  merely  waiting  for  results, 


178    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

is  of  very  uncertain  value  as  a  means  of  discipline. 
For  a  bad  boy  to  hear  himself  called  "good"  may  be 
so  new  to  him  as  to  arouse  in  his  mind  for  the  first 
time  a  sense  of  his  inner  worth  and  a  resulting  effect- 
ive effort  to  realise  this  newly-discovered  self.  So, 
the  rationally  optimistic  method  may,  and  often  does, 
make  this  same  kind  of  beginning;  but  it  does  much 
more.  It  seeks  to  understand  specifically  the  ante- 
cedents and  the  environment  of  all  causes  of  the  child's 
delinquent  acts,  and  it  proceeds  straightway  to  apply 
a  remedy  that  will  tend  to  effect  a  transformation. 


ANALOGY    FROM    THE   PIONEER 

Two  generations  ago,  many  stalwart  young  men  of 
the  East  turned  their  faces  westward  and  sought  out 
new  places  of  permanent  abode  on  the  unbroken  west- 
ern prairie.  Some  remained  only  long  enough  to  in- 
dulge more  freely  their  already  overworked  pes- 
simism and  to  acquire  a  vocabulary  of  epithets  with 
which  to  characterise  the  new  country.  Others,  too 
easily  satisfied,  settled  down  to  a  quiet,  matter-of- 
fact  existence,  writing  back  home  exaggerated  esti- 
mates of  the  beauty  and  worth  of  the  land  that  they 
were  doing  all  too  little  to  make  more  productive. 
They  were  examples  of  the  extreme  optimists.  Still 
others  made  from  the  beginning,  as  best  they  could, 
a  careful  study  of  the  conditions  of  soil  and  moisture, 
and  of  the  best  methods  of  producing  crops  or  carry- 
ing on  the  work  of  animal  husbandry.  These  were 
the  rational  optimists,  who  saw  in  the  raw,  new  coun- 
try latent  values  which  were  to  be  brought  into  real- 


OPTIMISM  AS  COMMON  SENSE  179 

isation  only  through  careful  and  thoughtful  effort. 
They  or  their  descendants  are  the  lords  of  the  land 
to-day. 

Now,  apply  the  story  of  the  class  of  pioneers  last 
named  to  the  work  of  intelligently  rearing  and  train- 
ing the  young  and  the  analogy  is  somewhat  close.  As 
the  wise  tiller  of  the  soil  proceeds  by  means  of  en- 
couraging the  outgrowth  into  the  desired  crop  from 
all  the  best  latent  substances  thereof,  while  he  com- 
bats every  crop  enemy  inherent  in  this  same  soil, 
so  does  the  thoughtful  trainer  and  instructor  of  the 
child  strive  to  bring  out  the  latter's  latent  abilities, 
while  attempting  to  suppress  all  the  inherent  and  ac- 
quired evil  tendencies.  The  whole  story  of  the  trans- 
formation of  growing  character  through  wise,  optimis- 
tic treatment  rests  in  this  method. 


PESSIMISM    AS   PUBLICITY 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  how  we  mature  and  sup- 
posedly stable-minded  adults  are  swayed  from  one  ex- 
treme to  another  by  the  way  the  public  press  sets  out 
the  larger  news  events.  For  a  time  during  the  power- 
ful German  offensive  early  in  1918  the  faces  of  all 
were  drawn  with  a  vision  of  defeat  and  humiliation. 
The  atmosphere  was  tense  with  nervous  interest  in 
every  item  of  fresh  news  from  the  front.  Pessimism 
seemed  to  be  on  nearly  every  tongue.  Then  came  the 
sudden  turning  of  the  tide.  Explosive  emotionalism 
was  the  noticeable  effect  with  its  typical  accompani- 
ment of  optimistic  prediction. 

But  in  normal  times,  human  conduct  which  reflects 


180    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

the  wicked  and  morbid  is  classed  as  news  and  accord- 
ingly receives  the  chief  headlines.  So  with  the  mo- 
tion picture  film.  It  must  depict  evil  in  order  to  be 
considered  as  interesting.  What  we  need  in  all  such 
cases  of  morbid  publicity  is  to  guard  against  pes- 
simism. We  must  remember  that  these  published  ac- 
counts are  given  the  prominent  places  simply  because 
of  the  fact  of  their  being  unusual  and  minority  types 
of  conduct.  The  good  done  by  humanity  is  so  fre- 
quent as  to  become  a  commonplace.  Our  duty  to  the 
young  is  here  a  most  important  one,  for  it  is  a  ten- 
dency of  their  uninformed  minds  to  regard  the  evil 
as  the  standard  type  of  normal  human  behaviour.  A 
crass  pessimism  is  the  natural  consequence  for  them 
unless  we  explain  away  the  error. 

To  summarise:  It  is  our  clear  duty  to  look  for 
the  best  side  of  a  people  and  events  as  a  possibility 
to  be  realised  partly  by  our  own  rational  and  cour- 
ageous efforts.  It  is  our  duty  to  look  forward  and 
upward  when  people  and  events  seem  to  threaten  to 
"go  to  the  bad"  and  hold  firm  and  unshaken  to  an 
ideal  of  betterment.  It  is  our  duty  to  teach  the  young 
this  valuable  rule  both  by  precept  and  example — all 
this  to  establish  our  lives  upon  a  basis  of  common 
sense  optimism. 


XVIII 
THE  DANGERS  OF  OBSESSION 

A  thirteen-year-old  boy  desiring  to  drop  all  the 
ordinary  school  work  and  become  a  professional  trap- 
per and  hunter ;  a  university  senior  attempting  to  rush 
into  the  career  of  a  statesman  without  waiting  for 
solid,  inner  growth;  a  much  heralded  statesman  and 
reformer  questioned  suddenly  as  to  his  sanity;  a 
woman  temperance  worker  suddenly  venting  her  right- 
eous wrath  by  chopping  the  saloons  with  a  hatchet; 
a  celebrated  anti-slavery  promoter  seizing  the  reins  of 
governmental  authority  and  leading  a  mob  to  execute 
reforms  not  yet  authorised  by  law;  a  brilliant  mind 
crazed  with  the  idea  of  the  divine  right  of  kings 
and  of  the  state  leading  the  whole  world  to  an  orgy 
of  butchery — all  these  are  conspicuous  examples  of 
the  slowly  accumulating  force  of  what  we  might  call 
an  obsession. 

NEITHER    GOOD    NOR    BAD 

The  obsession  is  neither  good  nor  bad  till  its  out- 
come makes  it  so.  Many  of  the  world's  greatest  re- 
forms have  been  led  by  persons  whose  enemies  have 
pronounced  them  insane  but  whose  backers  have  re- 
garded them  as  being  inspired  from  on  high.  Per- 

181 


182    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

haps  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case  the  reform  always 
demands  as  its  leader  some  personality  who  approxi- 
mates the  borderland  of  insanity.  It  must  have  a 
leader  who  is  "carried  away"  by  his  idea,  or  who  is 
the  victim  of  a  sort  of  obsession.  History  may  never 
completely  settle  the  issue  as  to  whether  Napoleon, 
or  Luther,  or  Joan  of  Arc,  or  John  Brown  was  a  com- 
pletely sane  person.  It  may  in  time  decide  that  every 
age  must  have  its  mad  iconoclasts  in  order  to  be  en- 
abled to  struggle  away  from  its  own  corrupt  obses- 
sions. 

Many  a  reformer  of  high  or  low  degree  has  run 
amuck,  as  we  say,  and  has  ended  his  career  in  the 
death  cell  or  the  madhouse.  Others,  who  seemed  to 
make  a  very  similar  beginning,  have  found  a  high 
place  in  the  pages  of  history.  The  difference — whether 
ignominy  or  glory  is  to  reward  the  effort — is  largely 
a  matter  of  the  times.  One  age  may  be  wholly  unpre- 
pared for  a  reform  and  may  mob  its  leaders.  The 
next  age  may  support  a  similar  movement  with  loud 
acclaim  and  finally  elect  the  leading  iconoclast  to  high 
office. 

NO  SOLUTION  OFFERED 

When  in  1914  all  Europe  was  set  on  fire  with  the 
excitement  of  war — the  culmination  of  an  ob- 
session on  the  theory  of  the  superman — the  world  at 
large  was  suffering  from  another  obsession  which  was 
straining  to  the  breaking  point.  The  world's  obses- 
sion was  the  insane  idea  that  mere  business  and  mate- 
rial goods  are  real  ends  to  be  sought  and  are  of  them- 
selves the  durable  satisfactions  of  life.  It  was  an  age 


THE  DANGERS  OF  OBSESSION        183 

of  pampering,  of  ease,  of  fattening  and  of  lust  with 
nothing  in  sight  but  more  of  the  same  thing.  In  a 
sense  the  entire  social  order  was  approaching  the 
status  of  a  cabaret  on  a  gigantic  scale.  When  the 
Prussians  launched  their  devilish  purpose  to  rule  the 
world  with  the  sword  they  threw  their  first  bomb  into 
a  civilisation  that  was  lazy  and  corrupt  to  the  core. 

The  price  which  the  world  has  paid  for  being 
brought  to  its  senses — for  allowing  a  bloody  obses- 
sion to  blast  away  a  lustful  obsession — is  beyond  hu- 
man computation.  Can  we  now  profit  by  the  sadden- 
ing consequences? 

WHERE    IS    WISDOM? 

A  startling  old  scripture  text  comes  to  mind  here: 
"Where  shall  wisdom  be  found  and  where  is  the  place 
of  understanding?"  We  might  well  apply  that  age- 
old,  keen  point  of  inquiry  to  our  present  quest  of  a 
method  for  dealing  with  that  dangerous  thing  called 
the  obsession — both  as  it  affects  the  individual  and 
the  masses. 

Now,  the  idea  here  in  mind  is  that  the  group  obses- 
sion can  never  be  obviated  till  we  learn  how  to  master 
the  individual  obsession.  And  the  situation  seems 
to  demand  that  the  ordinary  person  acquire  the  prac- 
tice of  watching  sharply  the  direction  of  his  dominant 
thought  and  action  in  order  to  become  certain  that 
these  will  not  get  into  a  rut  or  go  off  on  a  tangent. 
Perhaps  the  least  interesting  of  all  personalities  is 
the  one  who  responds  in  strict  accordance  with  all  the 
rules  and  conventions — the  one  who  follows  at  all 


184    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

times  the  beaten  path  of  tradition  and  custom  and 
proper  decorum.  On  the  other  hand,  the  eccentric, 
semi-insane  personality  is  nearly  always  interesting. 
He  springs  many  surprises  by  his  thought  and  con- 
duct. He  launches  fresh  and  new  movements;  and, 
for  these  reasons,  he  possesses  many  of  the  essential 
elements  of  leadership. 


SHOULD  WE  DE-VOCATIONALISE? 

For  a  long  time  we  have  harped  upon  the  idea  of 
directing  the  young  to  the  choice  of  a  vocation.  But 
our  plan  has  been  very  one-sided.  The  world  to-day 
is  swarming  with  men  who  are  in  a  sense  victims  of 
their  vocation,  who  are  entirely  shut  up  within  the 
narrow  sphere  of  their  work,  and  who  are  therefore 
suffering  from  an  obsession  dangerous  to  themselves 
and  to  society.  How  can  we  get  the  youth  into  his 
vocation  and  at  the  same  time  plan  a  way  whereby 
later  he  may  get  out  of  it?  How  may  the  ordinary 
busy  person  apply  a  system  of  checks  and  inquiries 
upon  his  conduct  and  keep  it  from  falling  into  stale 
ruts  or  turning  slowly  off  into  an  obsession?  We 
need  a  course  in  vocational! sing  the  young  which  will 
include  a  method  of  de-vocationalising  the  middle 
aged  and  the  older  members  of  society. 

Obviously,  there  is  a  need  for  something  more  than 
merely  urging  the  young  to  "stay  out  of  a  rut,"  and 
to  "keep  abreast  of  the  times."  We  should  have 
clearly  outlined  a  course  of  training  intended  specific- 
ally to  bring  about  such  a  status  for  the  individual. 
If  the  world  at  large  was  obsessed  in  1914  with  lust 


THE  DANGERS  OF  OBSESSION        185 

and  lazy  drifting  it  was  because  of  the  fact  that 
those  who  are  supposed  to  shape  the  course  of  society 
were  likewise  indifferent  or  asleep  to  the  staleness  of 
the  age.  How  may  we  take  society  apart  occasionally, 
examine  some  of  its  fixed  policies  and  foregone  con- 
clusions and  thus  possibly  head  off  its  obsessions  be- 
fore they  become  dangerous?  How  may  we  do  sim- 
ilarly for  ourselves  as  individuals?  The  answer  to 
each  of  these  might  prove  to  be  almost  identical  in 
method. 

WATCH   SOCIETY  CRITICALLY 

It  is  fair  to  assume  that  both  society  and  the  indi- 
vidual embody  at  all  times  the  potentialities  of  an 
obsession,  of  either  the  positive  or  the  negative  sort 
— that  there  is  always  the  danger  of  either  of  these 
breaking  out  in  the  direction  of  a  very  eccentric  type 
of  conduct,  or  of  going  to  sleep  upon  some  stale  and 
monotonous  procedure.  The  tendency  of  society  is 
perhaps  more  in  the  positive  direction ;  and  that  of  the 
individual,  more  in  the  negative.  If  we  should  at- 
tempt to  make  a  standard  whereby  to  test  social  prog- 
ress frequently  for  the  possible  detection  of  an  in- 
cipient "wrong"  tendency,  we  should  necessarily  be 
thrown  back  upon  racial  behaviour.  Certain  well-tried 
rules  of  collective  human  behaviour  would  have  to 
serve  as  the  guide,  and  the  fundamental  race  traits 
and  instincts  would  be  expected  to  furnish  the  nec- 
essary sanction  for  reliable  and  trustworthy  social 
conduct. 

And  now  that  the  war  is  over  we  should  be  bold 
enough  to  say  what  we  profoundly  believe;  namely, 


i86    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

the  year  1914  found  us  the  victim  of  the  intolerable 
obsession  of  lust  and  greed — a  condition  which  could 
not  possibly  remain  very  long  without  a  break.  If 
the  Prussians  had  not  come  forward  with  their  own 
brutish  purpose  and  "started  something"  on  a  gigantic 
scale,  then  some  other  mighty  explosion  was  soon 
due  to  take  place.  But  we  are  all  a  part  of  human 
society  and  we  must  all  continue  to  act  as  the  critics 
of  society  in  order  to  keep  her  sane  in  her  conduct. 
We  must  all  become  familiar  with  the  substantial  and 
persistent  nature  of  Comman  Man  and  easily  use  this 
as  our  measuring  rod  for  testing  the  behaviour  of 
the  masses  acting  as  a  whole. 

For  example,  once  we  have  discovered  the  law  of 
rhythm  as  a  gauge  of  a  progressive  individual  and 
collective  human  conduct — a  swinging  back  and  forth 
between  a  state  of  poise  and  a  state  of  restlessness — 
we  shall  quickly  decide  that  either  of  these  two  soon 
grows  "rotten  to  the  core'*  if  continued  long  in  a 
state  of  greed  and  material  satiety. 

The  experimentation  and  the  pioneering  of  society 
— the  trial  and  error  of  new  ventures — should  be  ap- 
proved to  the  degree  that  no  violence  is  thereby  being 
done  to  the  well-known  qualities  of  inherent  nature. 
Doubtless  we  still  have  ages  and  ages  to  travel  through 
before  we  shall  have  discovered  the  limitations  of  even 
our  most  common  capacities  of  self -management  and 
self-direction.  But  these  ventures  into  the  unknown 
can  easily  provide  for  the  taking  all  normal  types  of 
the  human  family  along  with  them  and  not  merely 
some  of  the  types,  e.  g.,  the  superman  or  the  genius. 
A  movement  to  establish  a  society  intended  to  give 


THE  DANGERS  OF  OBSESSION        187 

an  advantage  to  the  "smart  set,"  the  millionaire  or 
the  genius  is  a  dangerous  obsession. 


THE  INDIVIDUAL  STANDARD 

"Every  one  has  a  fool  streak  in  him  which  may  be- 
come dangerous  if  turned  loose  unrestrained."  So 
every  one  has  within  him  the  possibilities  of  stagna- 
tion. If  pampered  and  undisturbed  and  carried  along 
on  "flowery  beds  of  ease"  a  considerable  length  of 
time  he  likewise  tends  toward  the  negative  obsession 
of  a  lazy,  indifferent  attitude  toward  himself  and  so- 
ciety. When  all  the  records  are  in  it  will  probably 
appear  that  the  stupid  and  lazy-minded  portions  of 
the  human  family  have  done  us  more  damage  than 
the  "eccentric  fools"  have  done  directly. 

So,  there  is  certainly  an  apparent  need  of  a  well 
made  standard  of  checks  and  balances  whereby  indi- 
vidual man  may  test  himself  frequently  for  the  pres- 
ence of  an  incipient  obsession.  And  when  this  mat- 
ter is  reduced  to  its  lowest  terms  the  inherent  human 
nature  will  doubtless  again  become  the  foundation 
of  the  procedure  while  the  behaviour  of  a  well-bal- 
anced social  order  will  furnish  a  major  part  of  the 
superstructure.  As  I  pursue  my  chosen  vocation  do 
I  continue  to  indulge  to  some  degree  the  four  great 
aspects  of  the  common  inheritance  as  outlined  and 
somewhat  explained  in  a  previous  chapter — to  laugh, 
to  labour,  to  love  and  to  look  up?  If  I  continue  to 
swing  rhythmically  between  poise  or  quiescence  and 
strenuous  aggression;  and  if  I  continue  to  swerve 
my  course  so  as  to  keep  my  conduct  balanced  with 


i88    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

these  four  significant  life  issues;  then,  I  am  on  a  solid 
foundation  and  am  in  least  danger  of  an  obsession. 
If,  furthermore,  I  watch  the  movements  of  society 
with  a  judgment  based  on  a  knowledge  of  human 
nature  and  swing  my  course  midway  between  acquies- 
cence in  social  custom  and  a  consistent  type  of  per- 
sonal initiative — then,  I  am  at  once  a  participant  in 
social  progress  and  a  critic  thereof. 


THE  MASSES  RELIABLE 

It  is  the  masses  rather  than  the  classes  whom  we 
should  trust.  It  is  the  frank  and  open  conduct  of  the 
throngs,  reaching  out  honestly  for  a  better  definition 
of  their  lives,  whom  we  should  depend  upon  to  point 
the  way  to  a  safe  and  sane  type  of  behaviour  for  the 
world.  Always  crude,  always  blundering,  always 
right  in  their  general  aims — this  is  the  true  charac- 
terisation of  the  great  common  crowd.  Always 
scheming,  always  selfish,  always  wrong — this  is  the 
proper  designation  of  any  small  class  of  humanity  to 
whom  may  be  left  the  exclusive  management  of  so- 
ciety. The  unhindered,  unwatched  minority  is  always 
dangerous.  It  will  invariably  lead  to  an  obsession. 

The  second  reliable  test  of  one's  sanity  and  safety 
in  a  social  order,  therefore,  is  for  him  to  continue 
measuring  himself  in  terms  of  the  behaviour  of  the 
great  moving  masses.  The  larger  elements  of  his 
character  should  simply  be  at  best  a  refinement  of  the 
mighty  forces  in  human  nature  as  seem  constantly 
reaching  for  expression  through  the  conduct  of  the 
crowd. 


THE  DANGERS  OF  OBSESSION        189 

We  need  a  course  of  training  for  the  young — or 
rather  a  conscious  purpose  of  the  schooling  as  now 
imparted — which  would  tend  to  prepare  the  individ- 
ual, first,  against  getting  out  of  harmony  with  human 
nature;  and,  second,  against  getting  out  of  harmony 
with  a  sane  human  society.  Conscious  attention  to 
these  two  matters,  if  early  acquired,  would  not  make 
us  victims  of  a  narrow  and  stale  course  of  life;  it  would 
rather  give  us  a  permanent  ability  to  correct  our  car 
reers  and  to  keep  them  balanced  and  harmonious. 
Such  a  procedure  would  not  make  us  slaves  to  fashion 
and  custom,  but  sympathetic  critics  of  social  behaviour 
and  constructive  guides  of  social  progress.  It  would 
reduce  the  dangers  of  individual  and  of  social  obses- 
sion to  a  minimum. 


THE  DANGER  OF  POISE 

Some  will  regard  the  two  or  three  chapters  imme- 
diately preceding  this  one  as  a  plea  for  soft  and  flimsy 
conduct.  And  so  they  are,  in  a  sense.  No  one  can 
live  on  such  stuff.  Poise  alone  if  over-indulged  spells 
poison.  The  one  who  tries  to  make  this  world  all  a 
happy  dreamland  is  a  menace.  He,  too,  is  obsessed. 
But  the  red-blooded,  strenuous  person  who  can  first 
fight  his  battle  through  and  then  swing  himself  to 
the  other  extreme  of  a  calm  serenity — he  has  discov- 
ered one  of  the  secrets  of  a  powerful  human  existence. 

So,  the  purpose  of  all  this  discussion  is  not  to  please, 
but  rather  if  possible  to  make  men  think.  To  please 
is  to  put  to  sleep;  to  make  one  think  may  also  result 
in  his  deep  provocation,  but  it  will  also  lead  him  to 


190    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

struggle  for  a  more  secure  position  for  his  own  life 
and  thought.  Verily,  it  may  develop  that  a  part  of 
our  duty  in  life  is  that  of  knocking  the  props  from 
under  one  another's  obsessions. 


XIX 

SENSE  AND  SENTIMENT 

One-half  of  the  active,  well  balanced  life  is  common 
sense.  That  part  of  the  conscious  daily  effort  of  a 
person  so  organised  is  an  attempt  to  deal  in  a  mat- 
ter-of-fact way  with  the  duties  as  they  arise.  An- 
other important  half  of  the  good  life  is  sentiment, 
made  up  about  equally  of  memories  of  the  past  and 
visions  of  the  future.  If  we  admit  that  there  is  a 
general  need  of  a  physician  of  the  soul  as  well  as 
a  physician  for  the  body,  then  we  shall  doubtless 
agree  that  the  former  must  deal  constructively  with 
the  sentimentalism  of  his  patient.  And  such  a  prac- 
titioner would  naturally  proceed  to  diagnose  his  case 
by  inquiry  into  the  memories  and  the  visions  of  the 
individual, 

RECOGNITION  OF  SENTIMENT 

Too  many  potentially  good  and  efficient  men  and 
women  belong  to  the  class  sometimes  called  the  down- 
and-outs.  Vast  numbers  of  others,  born  to  shine  in 
the  world,  are  all  the  while  hovering  along  the  bor- 
der line  of  dejection.  Society  has  floundered  so  fear- 
fully of  late  because  of  the  failure  of  business  and 
legislation  to  recognise  the  fundamental  and  legiti- 

191 


192    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

mate  place  of  sentimentality  in  every  important  affair 
of  the  individual  and  of  the  masses.  So  called  solid 
fact  is  not  enough.  The  sentimental  or  poetic  side  of 
work  and  effort  is  everywhere  apparent  to  the  one 
who  knows  how  to  analyse  character. 

I  spend  an  hour  with  a  plain  business  man,  one  who 
perhaps  appears  to  be  very  blunt  and  matter-of-fact 
in  all  his  dealings.  I  try  to  discern  the  real  motive 
power  which  drives  him  forward  so  energetically ;  and 
lo,  there  is  a  region  of  tears  and  tenderness  deep 
within.  Here,  I  find  is  the  well-spring  of  much  of 
his  best  effort.  He  treasures  the  memory  of  a  long 
departed  mother.  He  still  hears  mentally  her  voice 
and  repeats  over  and  over  her  encouraging  and  cheer- 
ing maxims  for  his  life.  Indeed,  her  words  have 
grown  far  more  forceful  to  him  as  the  years  have 
sped  away. 

One  of  the  richest  treasures  ever  laid  away  in  the 
storehouse  of  the  past  is  the  memory  of  the  broken 
strains  of  some  old  lullaby  sung  by  a  mother  whose 
body  is  now  dust,  and  whose  voice  was  perhaps  never 
trained  for  singing.  After  the  exercises  of  a  long, 
strenuous  day  were  over  and  the  receding  light  of  the 
sun  in  the  heavens  had  brought  out  the  stars,  and 
while  a  tired  little  body  was  nestling  in  the  folds  of 
a  pair  of  affectionate  arms,  there  could  then  be  heard 
the  delectable  cadences  of  that  mother's  voice  in  song. 
How  it  soothed  and  charmed  into  oblivion  the  weari- 
ness of  the  little  one,  while  it  bore  him  away  into  the 
land  of  delightful  dreams.  And  after  the  peaceful 
slumberer  had  been  laid  away  to  rest  upon  his  baby 
couch,  the  listener  might  have  heard  the  impressive 


SENSE  AND  SENTIMENT  193 

stillness  of  the  night  broken  by  the  half-whispered 
tones  of  that  same  mother's  voice  in  prayer.  It  was 
only  a  simple,  improvised  plea  in  behalf  of  herself 
and  the  sleeping  child,  the  like  of  which  has  been  ut- 
tered the  whole  world  round  ever  since  the  awaken- 
ing of  the  emotion  of  mother  love,  but  it  was  a 
prayer  of  wonderful  potency.  It  is  still  at  work  in 
the  memory  of  that  child,  directing  his  life  as  a 
man. 

Again,  I  explore  an  inner  department  of  the  mind 
of  my  business  friend  and  there  is  at  once  revealed 
another  strong  sentimental  force  at  work  literally 
driving  him  onward  to  a  more  determined  effort.  It 
is  a  vision  of  the  possible  future  of  his  children.  The 
thought  of  what  they  can  possibly  be  fashioned  into 
through  his  support  thrills  his  being  and  constitutes 
a  very  large  part  of  his  subconsciousness  also. 
Wherefore,  it  is  plain  that  this  typical  business  man 
of  apparently  blunt  manners  is  not  merely  an  individ- 
ual of  common  sense  practices  but  he  is  at  least  fifty 
per  cent,  an  individual  of  dreamy  sentiment. 

THE  ADVERSE   SIDE 

Now,  it  is  very  easy  indeed  to  make  out  a  case  for 
the  positive  aspects  of  emotional  sentiment  as  being  a 
very  strong  factor  in  the  conduct  of  the  ordinary  suc- 
cessful and  contented  individual.  He  enjoys  what  we 
might  call  healthy-mindedness.  His  memories  of  the 
past  are  pleasing,  his  present  effort  is  progressing  and 
his  vision  of  the  future  is  luring.  If  it  were  true  that 


194    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

all  ordinary  persons,  of  whatever  station  in  life,  have 
at  their  command  this  helpful  backward-and- forward 
look  on  life,  the  matter  might  be  dropped. 

But  the  world  is  weighted  down  with  an  adverse 
type  of  sentiment.  Millions  among  the  mighty  throng 
are  poisoned  with  bitter  regrets  of  what  seems  a  cruel 
past  and  with  a  black  vision  of  what  seems  a  hopeless 
future.  The  libraries  are  filled  with  volumes  and 
speech  everywhere  is  pregnant  with  theories  purport- 
ing to  solve  the  problem  of  labour  and  wages  and 
general  vocational  adjustment.  We  imagine  that 
when  we  have  once  placed  a  man  at  employment  with 
good  wages  as  his  reward  his  case  is  satisfactorily 
settled.  But  if  he  still  lacks  the  proper  sentiment  to 
spur  him  on  his  undertaking  is  a  failure.  Life  to  him 
will  continue  to  be  a  dull  grind  and  the  work  of  his 
hand  a  stale  mechanicalism. 

Hence,  we  are  directly  reminded  here  of  our  theory 
that  there  should  be  a  social  adjuster  for  every  con- 
cern which  employs  a  considerable  number  of  per- 
sons. One  special  line  of  duty  of  such  a  physician  of 
the  soul  would  be  that  of  improving  the  subject's  mem- 
ory of  the  past  and  of  assisting  him  to  make  out  a 
better  ideal  for  his  future.  To  train  the  hand  of  the 
employe  to  perform  its,  part  skilfully  is  a  small  mat- 
ter in  comparison  with  the  training  of  his  heart  or  his 
sentiment.  Now,  it  happens  that  many  of  the  bitter 
regrets  which  crush  and  hinder  the  typical  despondent 
person  can  be  successfully  explained  away.  They  are 
imagined  wrongs  and  failures  of  the  past  rather  than 
real  ones. 


SENSE  AND  SENTIMENT  195 

A  SENTIMENTAL  ADJUSTER 

A  certain  shopworker  who  was  paid  good  wages 
had  long  been  depressed  by  the  regret  that  his  fa- 
ther had  failed  to  keep  him  in  school  till  he  had  ac- 
quired an  advanced  education.  "Then  I  might  have 
amounted  to  something,"  said  he.  "As  it  is  now  I 
am  a  mere  mechanic  with  no  better  outlook  for  the 
future."  "But/5  it  was  replied,  "you  must  remember 
that  your  father  did  very  well  for  his  day  when  he 
sent  you  through  even  the  elementary  schools.  You 
obtained  what  was  then  considered  a  standard  educa- 
tion." 

And  then  it  was  explained  to  the  regretful  work- 
man that  his  disappointed  dream  about  himself  might 
be  realised  in  the  lives  of  his  growing  children.  Plan 
from  this  time  forward  to  make  them  greater  than 
you  ever  hoped  to  become.  Bend  all  your  effort 
toward  giving  them  an  advanced  course  of  training. 
To  watch  them  grow  slowly  into  rich  and  forceful 
personalities,  and  finally  to  have  them  occupying 
worthy  places  as  masters  of  a  good  career  of  their 
own  and  as  servants  of  society — that  is  the  vision 
which  the  despairing  shopman  was  helped  to  make  out 
for  himself.  Carried  to  its  practical  applications,  it 
means  not  only  an  allaying  of  the  bitter  regret  for 
an  imagined  failure  in  the  past.  It  means  also  that 
the  adjuster  would  take  up  the  case  of  his  young  fam- 
ily one  at  a  time  and  assist  in  the  planning  of  the  best 
possible  future  for  them. 

I  will  leave  it  to  others  to  train  a  workman  to  work. 
That  is  an  easy  matter.  Give  me  the  opportunity  to 


196    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

train  him  to  think  sentimentally,  for  by  only  such 
means  may  his  work  be  made  really  worthy  of  the 
effort  it  entails.  The  material  product  of  the  effort 
of  the  workman — or  the  material  gain  of  the  business 
man — this  is  a  very  cheap  thing  indeed  if  regarded 
as  possessing  any  intrinsic  worth.  Granted  that  the 
individual's  memory  of  the  past  is  not  tangled  with 
snarls  and  regrets;  granted  that  his  vision  for  the 
future  is  a  happy  dream  of  unselfish  and  altruistic 
achievement — then  I  will  quickly  and  incidentally 
teach  him  to  perform  well  the  mechanical  side  of  his 
work. 

THE  POWER  OF  SENTIMENT 

We  have  all  along  held  to  the  theory  that  a  prac- 
tical idealism  is  necessary  for  the  teacher  and  the  min- 
ister of  the  gospel.  We  have  even  admitted  the  neces- 
sity of  a  sort  of  sickly  sentimentalism  as  an  element 
of  pleasing  literature.  But  the  music  of  shop-em- 
ployment and  the  poetry  of  farming,  there  has  scarcely 
been  one  to  advocate  or  defend  as  a  practical  idea 

The  clank  and  rumbling  of  the  ponderous  machinery, 
The  consuming  white  glow  of  the  blazing  furnace, 
The  beads  of  cooling  sweat  on  the  pulsating  forehead, 
The  clear,  commanding  voice  of  the  foreman  busy  with  his  group, 
The  scurrying  clouds  of  smoke  seeking  exit  through  the  tran- 
soms, 

The  merry  jests  of  the  others  as  they  pass  in  and  out  for  the 
changes— 

These  constitute  a  part  of  the  poetry  which  might 
conceivably  animate  a  common  shopman  whose  mem- 
ory of  the  past  recalls  not  a  pang  of  regret  and  whose 


SENSE  AND  SENTIMENT  197 

vision  of  the  future  is  a  thing  of  unobstructed  beauty. 
This  sentiment  is  one  of  the  very  positive  and  sub- 
stantial forces  in  his  every-day  life.  And,  strange  to 
say,  it  is  a  thing  which  inspectors  of  shops  and  testers 
of  men  almost  uniformly  ignore. 

Furthermore,  what  shall  we  say  of  a  farmer  whom 
the  cold  of  winter  has  shut  in  for  a  long  season  and 
who  goes  forth  on  May  day  with  this  happy  scriptural 
spring  song  vibrating  through  his  being — 

The  voice  of  my  beloved!    Behold  he  cometh 

Leaping  upon  the  Mountains, 

Skipping  upon  the  hills. 

My  beloved  spake  and  said  unto  me: 

Rise  up,  my  Love,  my  Fair  One,  and  come  away! 

For,  lo! 

The  winter  is  passed, 

The  rain  is  over  and  gone, 

The  flowers  appear  on  the  earth; 

The  time  of  the  singing  of  birds  is  come, 

And  the  voice  of  the  turtle  dove  is  heard  in  the  land. 

The  fig  tree  putteth  forth  her  green  figs, 

And  the  vines  with  the  tender  grape  give  a  good  smell. 

Arise,  my  Love,  my  Fair  One,  and  come  away! 

LIFE    NOT   ALL  DREAMS 

And  so  it  is  not  merely  shopwork,  but  the  poetry  of 
common  industry  which  should  concern  us.  It  is  not 
merely  farming,  but  the  music  of  soil-culture  which 
we  may  well  consider  in  relation  to  our  reconstruction 
of  society.  Here,  then,  is  a  mighty  and  practical  task 
for  the  leaders  of  society ;  to  provide  that  the  common 
individual  may  have  the  opportunity  and  the  disposi- 
tion to  transform  a  part  of  his  mechanical  drudgery 
into  the  song  and  the  poetry  of  the  dreamer. 


198    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

But  the  good  life  is  not  all  dream  stuff.  Perhaps 
the  vagarist  is  as  far  out  of  touch  with  substantial 
progress  as  the  mere  materialist.  We  become  dis- 
gusted with  his  impractical  fancies.  In  his  readiness 
to  offer  a  solution  for  every  problem  he  is  steadfast 
in  only  one  thing,  and  that  is  the  habit  of  ignoring 
the  facts.  A  survey  of  every  community  will  bring 
out  at  least  a  small  group  of  these  ineffective  senti- 
mentalists, whose  chief  virtue  is  that  of  never  becom- 
ing discouraged. 

To  phrase  this  matter  in  the  language  of  the  present 
text,  we  might  say  that  the  mere  dreamer  is  the  one 
who  pretends  to  know  the  music  and  the  poetry  of 
everything  in  general,  but  who,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
can  apply  these  fine  arts  to  nothing  in  particular.  Our 
duty  to  him  and  his  class  is  to  assist  such  a  person 
early  in  life  to  fasten  his  imagining  to  something  tan- 
gible and  make  the  two  pull  together  for  some  prac- 
tical purpose.  In  short,  instead  of  our  long-standing 
disposition  to  condemn  him,  we  should  determine  to 
cure  him.  Thus  we  should  not  confine  the  classes  of 
poets  and  singers  to  the  few  who  are  able  merely  to 
compose  verses  and  write  music.  The  fuller  and  more 
significant  expression  of  the  so  called  fine  arts  be- 
longs rather  to  those  who  can  make  practical  use  of 
them  in  their  every-day  lives. 


THE  CHARM  IN  A  NAME 

There  is  a  strange  significance  resident  in  a  good, 
suggestive  name.  "Thy  name  shall  be  called  no  more 
Jacob  but  Israel,  for  as  a  prince  hast  thou  power  with 


SENSE  AND  SENTIMENT  199 

God  and  with  men,"  said  the  angel  of  the  Lord  after 
wrestling  with  the  great  leader.  From  that  time  on 
Jacob  appears  to  have  enjoyed  a  fuller  sense  of  his 
worth  and  ability.  "I  call  you  no  longer  servants  but 
friends/'  said  the  Master  of  Men  to  his  disciples. 
This  superior  title  of  respect  and  honour  doubtless 
implanted  new  courage  in  the  hearts  of  those  humble 
followers.  When  the  great  Bishop  declared  to  Jean 
Valjean  that  he  had  bought  the  latter 's  soul  and  given 
it  unto  the  good,  the  poor,  broken-spirited  galley  slave 
renewed  his  efforts  to  lead  a  righteous  life  with  such 
success  as  amounted  almost  to  his  complete  trans- 
formation. So,  the  records  might  be  brought  forward 
to  illustrate  the  magic  effects  of  the  pronouncement, 
by  some  worthy  authority,  of  a  new,  significant  name 
for  some  one  called  to  enter  upon  an  arduous  under- 
taking. 

But  why  confine  the  very  positive  force  of  such 
fine  sentiment  to  the  rare  occasion  of  the  heroic  or- 
deal ?  Can  it  also  not  be  made  to  haul  stone  and  bake 
bread?  Is  it  not  a  practical  and  even  a  commercial 
aspect  of  the  life  of  a  plain  artisan  for  him  to  regard 
himself  as  one  called  by  heaven  to  perform  a  spiritual 
mission?  Could  he  not  be  tested  for  the  presence  of 
a  possible  aptitude  for  performing  some  small  mission 
in  connection  with  his  ordinary  work  or  business? 
Does  it  necessarily  strain  the  situation  at  all  for  us 
to  think  of  a  common  workman  as  one  who  is  in  the 
habit  of  performing  a  small  ministering  service  to 
the  needy  or  the  downcast  around  him,  and  who  takes 
for  his  motto  a  scriptural  phrase? — 

"The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  God  is  upon  me  because 


200    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

the  Lord  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings 
unto  the  meek.  He  hath  sent  me  to  bind  up  the 
broken-hearted,  to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives, 
and  the  opening  of  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound." 

But  the  peculiar  results  of  this  form  of  suggestion 
• — for  such  it  is — are  best  shown  in  case  of  children. 
Far  out  on  the  mountain  side,  bleak  and  rugged,  there 
could  have  been  seen  on  a  certain  cold  winter  day, 
a  sturdy  little  ten-year-old  boy  following  the  trail  that 
leads  westward  from  the  isolated  village  of  R.  A 
less  courageous  lad  of  his  years  would  have  quailed 
before  the  cutting  sleet  and  the  piercing  wind.  But 
his  errand  was  one  of  mercy,  namely,  to  carry  some 
medicine  and  deliver  a  message  to  a  sick  woman  liv- 
ing out  in  a  lonely  cabin.  On  being  asked  at  the  end 
of  the  journey  what  he  had  been  given  in  payment  for 
undertaking  such  a  perilous  task,  the  boy  replied : 
"Mother  said  I  was  a  brave  little  man,  and  so  I  just 
came  running." 

Again,  it  may  be  asked,  why  should  the  stimulating 
force  of  such  splendid  sentiment  be  regarded  as  apply- 
ing only  to  children  and  a  few  formally  ordained  mis- 
sionaries? It  is  the  contention  here  that  ordinary 
human  existence  slowly  grew  coarse  and  mean  during 
the  recent  generations  past  because  of  the  fact  that  the 
force  of  a  well  balanced  idealism  was  slowly  with- 
drawn from  both  the  planners  and  the  plodders  along 
life's  common  way.  The  pursuit  of  business,  of  in- 
dustry, of  science,  for  its  own  sake,  finally  robbed 
all  these  occupations  of  their  spiritual  significance, 
without  which  they  became  as  trash  in  a  heap.  Not 
only  once  but  many  times  in  history  have  great  masses 


SENSE  AND  SENTIMENT  201 

of  men  fallen  upon  one  another  in  murderous  warfare 
as  a  result  of  having  lost  the  common  tie  of  a  strong 
altruistic  sentiment.  And,  judging  the  future  by  the 
past,  and  both  in  terms  of  the  eternal  inheritance  in 
man,  we  may  be  certain  of  other  bloody  struggles  in 
the  future  at  such  time  as  the  material  things  of  life 
are  permitted  to  obscure  the  eternal  spiritual  verities 
in  the  heart  of  the  common  masses. 

As  a  matter  of  plain  business,  therefore — of  com- 
merce, of  science,  of  education,  of  planning  for  per- 
manent peace  on  the  earth — the  substance  of  the  sen- 
timent which  led  the  little  boy  on  through  the  raging 
blizzard  might  well  be  made  a  practical  motto  for 
the  plainest  adult  plodder  up  life's  rugged  steeps — 

"How  beautiful  upon  the  mountain  are  the  feet  of 
him  that  bringeth  good  tidings,  that  publisheth  peace, 
that  bringeth  good  tidings  of  good,  that  publisheth 
salvation. " 


THE  SENTIMENT  OF  THE  LEISURE  CLASS 

Finally,  the  individual  and  society  together  are  suf- 
fering from  the  sentiment  of  those  vain  and  pampered 
creatures  who  find  little  to  do  other  than  to  squander 
their  time  in  the  sensuous  occupations  of  the  smart 
set.  How  deeply  the  suffering  world  at  large  needs 
the  ministrations  which  could  be  theirs  for  the  mere 
price  of  a  heart  to  give!  How  sorely  their  possible 
services  are  needed  by  the  sick  and  the  careworn  close 
at  hand!  If  such  things  were  practicable  we  should 
like  to  deliver  to  every  selfish  soul  of  the  class  this 
admonition : — 


202    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

O  vain,  well  dressed,  easy-living  woman,  weeping 
over  the  suffering  of  the  fictitious  character  in  that 
novel  you  are  reading,  life  is  more  real  than  this! 
Do  you  really  desire  to  do  some  good  in  the  world? 
Even  now  there  is  perhaps  lying  over  the  way  within 
five  blocks  of  you  a  poor,  sick  mother,  destitute  of 
friends  and  almost  of  the  bare  necessities  of  life.  She 
has  been  making  boys'  suits  in  a  down-town  sweat 
shop  at  96^  per  dozen  as  a  means  of  supporting  her- 
self and  her  four  fatherless  little  children.  Go  over 
there  and  kneel  down  beside  the  bed  of  the  poor, 
unfortunate  creature  and  bathe  her  hot  face  with  your 
tears  of  compassion  and  tell  her  you  will  love  her. 
Tell  her  you  have  a  heart  message  from  some  source 
divine  which  impels  you  to  come  with  relief.  Then, 
wash  her  with  your  own  dainty  hands,  and  put  a  new, 
clean  garment  upon  her  furnished  from  your  own 
over-supply  at  home. 

Take  the  hungry  little  ones  up  in  your  arms,  and 
wash  them  and  warm  their  little  pinched  faces  with 
kisses  of  true  affection.  And  then  set  about  prepar- 
ing them  something  nourishing  to  eat,  thus  learning 
through  experience  the  real  joy  of  loving  and  serving 
some  one  who  is  in  need.  As  soon  as  possible,  see 
that  these  children  are  supplied  with  better  clothing 
and  that  their  hair  is  combed  and  their  house  is  set 
in  order.  Do  this  in  all  gentleness  and  affection  and 
observe  how  fondly  the  little  ones  will  cling  to  you, 
for  they  will  bless  you  to  the  end  of  your  life.  Not 
only  so,  but  under  your  care  and  compassion  the  ailing 
mother  will  probably  recover  very  rapidly.  She  may 


SENSE  AND  SENTIMENT  203 

be  suffering  not  so  much  from  disease,  but  simply  dy- 
ing by  inches  from  lack  of  sympathy  and  love.  Your 
kindly  ministrations  will  tend  to  put  a  fresh  bloom  on 
her  cheek  and  a  new  song  in  her  soul. 


XX 

THE  WAR  ON  WHITE  SLAVERY 

One  of  the  most  brutal  and  sickening  forms  of  at- 
tack made  by  the  European  superman  while  in  the  ze- 
nith of  his  power  was  that  directed  against  the  helpless 
womanhood  of  the  provinces  which  he  overcame  with 
his  bloody  sword.  The  evidence  is  beyond  disputa- 
tion in  effect,  that  he  not  only  ravished  women  and 
girls  indiscriminately,  but  that  his  blood-stained  hordes 
carried  these  innocent  victims  away  as  captives  for 
his  continued  lust,  staked  them  to  the  ground  for  the 
convenience  of  his  troops,  and  chopped  their  bodies  to 
pieces  after  they  had  suffered  a  horrible  death. 

A  WORLD-WIDE  AFFAIR 

While  the  white  slave  practice  of  the  late  superman 
culminated  in  the  most  fiendish  practice  of  the  kind 
during  modern  times,  we  have  no  right  to  charge  this 
entire  affair  up  to  him.  His  act  may  be  more  prop- 
erly defined  as  the  final  bursting  and  running  over  of 
a  most  nauseating  festering  sore  on  the  body  of  our 
so  called  modern  civilisation.  Or,  to  express  the  mat- 
ter less  figuratively,  it  was  the  high  tension  point  of 
our  racial  obsessions.  White  slavery  had  been  under 
the  whip  during  the  past  decade,  to  be  sure.  It  had 

204 


THE  WAR  ON  WHITE  SLAVERY      205 

been  studied,  investigated,  segregated,  driven  about 
not  a  little,  and  legislated  against  in  many  parts  of 
the  world — all  this,  and  still  it  was  very  persistent 
and  practically  unchecked  at  the  outbreak  of  the  great 
war. 

There  is  ample  proof  that  hordes  of  women  fol- 
lowed behind  all  the  great  European  armies  during 
at  least  the  early  years  of  the  war  and  that  their  hid- 
eous traffic  was  conducted  on  a  gigantic  scale.  There 
is  ample  evidence  that  certain  of  these  armies  at  times 
had  more  men  under  hospital  treatment  for  venereal 
disease  than  for  wounds  received  in  the  big  battles 
then  raging.  There  is  ample  evidence  to  prove  that 
when  the  great  war  began,  white  slavery  as  an  adjunct 
of  army  life  was  an  accepted  practice  on  the  part  of  all 
the  so  called  civilised  nations,  including  our  own  be- 
loved country.  Indeed,  this  was  one  of  the  grossest 
and  most  fraudulent  obsessions  that  has  ever  gripped 
the  minds  of  an  intelligent,  free-thinking  humanity. 
While  many  intelligent  men  were  long  ago  disgusted 
with  the  white  slave  situation  in  connection  with  army 
life,  even  these  considered  the  situation  as  hopeless,  in 
so  far  as  eradication  was  concerned. 


AMERICA  STARTLED  THE  WORLD 

Up  to  the  time  of  the  mobilisation  of  our  enlarged 
army  along  the  Mexican  border  in  1913  the  United 
States  Army  was  committed  to  the  disheartening  cus- 
tom of  the  world  at  large  in  respect  to  white  slavery. 
A  red-light  district  of  some  sort  was  within  reach 
of  practically  every  place  where  our  troops  were  quar- 


206    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

tered  for  a  considerable  period  of  time.  The  venereal 
poison  contingent,  true  to  tradition  and  custom,  also 
followed  our  army  to  the  border  and  there  began  to 
conduct  business  on  the  usual  extensive  scale. 

But  just  here  there  came  a  turn  in  affairs  which 
should  properly  go  down  in  history  as  a  sensational 
turn  in  the  career  of  the  army  white  slaver.  The 
credit  for  a  new  vision  respecting  this  ugly  monster, 
and  the  masterful  courage  to  put  the  new  purpose 
through  belongs  to  Dr.  James  Naismith,  then  a  mem- 
ber of  the  faculty  of  the  University  of  Kansas  on 
leave,  and  the  Reverend  A.  C.  McKeever,  a  minister 
of  the  gospel  residing  at  Garden  City,  Kansas,  and 
known  throughout  the  Middle- West  as  an  able  lec- 
turer. Dr.  Naismith  and  Mr.  McKeever  both  went 
to  the  Border  as  chaplains  of  companies  of  Kansas 
National  Guard  troops. 

The  majority  of  the  Kansas  youths  who  went  to  the 
Border  under  the  chaplaincy  of  these  two  men  were 
clean  in  body  and  mind  and  spirit.  They  knew  prac- 
tically nothing  by  way  of  personal  experience,  about 
either  the  liquor  traffic  or  the  white  slave  traffic.  We 
can  imagine  the  disgust  and  indignation  of  all  these 
men  and  boys  as  they  witnessed  the  aggressions  of 
the  two  soul-destroying  monsters  named  above. 
Within  a  short  distance  of  the  camp  where  their  regi- 
ment was  located  there  began  to  be  erected  with  fever- 
ish haste  a  cheap  stockade  with  the  astonishing  ar- 
rangement of  one-hundred  separate  stalls  for  scarlet 
women.  Naismith  and  McKeever  pleaded  with  the 
poison  squad  but  were  turned  away  with  a  bluff. 
They  applied  to  the  local  court  but  none  dared  to 


THE  WAR  ON  WHITE  SLAVERY      207 

act.  They  laid  the  case  before  the  higher  local  army 
command,  but  were  dismissed  on  the  theory  of  "sex- 
ual necessity,"  and  were  assured  that  "nothing  had 
ever  been  done  about  this  thing  and  nothing  ever  could 
be."  Finally  the  authorities  at  Washington  were  im- 
portuned, but  without  the  result  of  either  proposal 
for  relief  or  encouragement  to  continue  any  effort  to 
get  relief.  Beyond  a  doubt  our  national  government 
was  then  still  in  the  grip  of  the  traditional  obsession 
as  to  the  necessity  of  a  white  slave  business  in  con- 
nection with  every  army  camp. 

But  the  two  pioneer  crusaders  mentioned  above 
would  not  quit.  Acting  within  the  restraints  and  the 
dignity  proper  for  men  in  the  uniform  they  tried  every 
phase  of  legal  procedure  that  promised  any  sign  of 
relief.  At  last,  after  expending  hundreds  of  dollars 
of  their  own  money,  they  were  successful  in  persuad- 
ing an  obscure  county  court  miles  from  the  scene  to 
invoke  a  somewhat  forgotten  law  and  issue  an  injunc- 
tion against  the  white-slave  stockade  described  above. 
The  builders  and  their  devilish  gang  were  driven  out 
at  the  point  of  more  than  one  army  weapon. 

THE   SPREAD   OF   AN   IDEA 

After  the  painful  and  somewhat  tragic  demonstra- 
tion conducted  by  Chaplains  Naismith  and  McKeever 
in  driving  out  a  white  slave  camp,  the  idea  of  an  at- 
tack on  the  venereal  evil  in  the  army  began  to  spread 
like  magic.  Army  physicians,  ranking  officers  of  the 
line,  and  high  government  officials  quickly  accepted 
the  revolutionary  scheme  and  began  to  set  in  motion 


208    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

the  machinery  necessary  for  making  it  general.  For- 
tunately for  the  cause,  this  second  stage  of  its  devel- 
opment came  at  about  the  time  many  thousands  of  our 
innocent  youths  were  being  hurried  into  the  army. 
The  white-slave  business  was  thus  suddenly  flaunted 
'before  the  disturbed  minds  of  parents  everywhere  as 
the  ugliest  thing  confronting  their  boys  in  the  pros- 
pective military  venture.  A  great  cry  went  up  to 
Washington,  and  a  mighty  and  history-making  move- 
ment was  thus  launched. 

The  white  slaver  and  white  slavery  began  to  be 
herded  and  hounded  unmercifully.  An  effort  was 
made  to  establish  a  moral  zone  about  nearly  every 
army  camp  and  to  patrol  this  against  the  encroach- 
ments of  liquor  and  scarlet  women.  None  of  us  will 
claim  that  the  effort  was  a  full  success,  and  yet  none 
of  us  will  deny  its  extreme  helpfulness  in  driving  out 
the  enemies  opposed.  The  Kansas  legislature,  for 
<example,  provided  a  "farm"  for  scarlet  women  and 
as  fast  as  these  were  caught  hanging  about  the  army 
camps  within  the  state  they  were  hurried  off  to  this 
place  of  detention  to  remain  during  the  period  of 
the  war.  Many  of  their  backers  were  fined  and  im- 
prisoned. 

It  may  be  asserted  without  question  that  the  sexual 
health  and  the  sexual  morality  of  the  young  men  in 
our  great  American  army  camps  became  a  conspicuous 
example  to  the  country  at  large  and  to  the  entire 
world.  It  was  not  only  so  far  above  what  is  con- 
sidered the  normal  white  slave  situation  in  our  larger 
cities  that  the  officials  of  many  of  these  were  shamed 
into  making  a  radical  improvement  therein ;  but  it  was 


THE  WAR  ON  WHITE  SLAVERY      209 

also  a  startling  example  to  our  allies  when  our  clean 
troops  arrived  over-seas.  And  there  followed  in  Eu- 
rope a  most  significant  and  far-reaching  attempt  to 
drive  back  the  entire  disgusting  army  of  white  slav- 
ery. 

'BACK  TO  FIRST  PRINCIPLES 

The  white  slave  business  may  be  driven  back  and 
temporarily  defeated,  but  little  permanent  progress 
will  be  made  against  it  until  we  get  down  to  a  bed- 
rock foundation  for  a  beginning  point.  So  long  as 
we  permit  boys  everywhere  to  talk  white  slavery  in 
their  common  intercourse  with  one  another  they  will 
become  slowly  obsessed  with  the  idea  of  its  necessity 
for  themselves  as  individuals  and  for  the  masses.  So 
long  as  we  admit  a  dual  standard  of  morality  for  the 
two  sexes,  blaming  or  punishing  girls  and  not  boys 
for  sexual  wrong,  accepting  a  "wild  oats"  period  as 
normal  for  the  latter  and  not  for  the  former — to  this 
extent  we  shall  continue  to  bring  up  succeeding  gen- 
erations of  men  who  at  best  believe  in  white  slavery 
as  a  necessary  evil. 

Wrong  thinking  is  the  primary  cause  of  all  wrong, 
and  right  thinking  is  the  only  natural  corrective.  We 
have  lived  under  a  false  philosophy  of  the  relations 
of  the  sexes  and  have  thus  perpetuated  an  ugly  and 
unnatural  situation.  We  may  blast  away  with  our 
big  guns  and  our  little  ones  in  a  campaign  to  drive 
out  the  traditional  sex  evil,  and  always  get  encourag- 
ing but  temporary  results.  While  the  big  fundamental 
problem  of  creating  a  new  social  philosophy  remains 
practically  untouched  our  progress  will  amount  to  lit- 


210    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

tie.  There  could  be  rendered  a  most  important  service 
to  the  future  of  society  therefore,  if  a  group  of  ex- 
perts should  set  themselves  to  the  task  of  planning  a 
program  of  right  relations  of  the  two  sexes  to  each 
other  during  the  period  of  growth  and  education. 

"There  is  nothing  good  or  bad  but  thinking  makes 
it  so"  is  an  apt  phrase  here  if  we  understand  the 
word  "makes"  to  mean  "creates."  So  we  must  strive 
to  create  a  new  sex  conscience  through  the  instrumen- 
tality of  a  safe-guarded  and  well  directed  sex  con- 
sciousness during  the  years  of  character  development 
How  is  a  pre-adolescent  boy  to  regard  girls?  How 
is  a  youth  to  regard  the  young  women  of  his  age? 
How  are  common  men  to  regard  common  women 
wherever  they  are  met  or  mingled  with?  The  fore- 
going are  mighty  questions  as  related  to  the  training 
of  the  individual  in  matters  of  sex  and  as  related 
to  human  welfare  at  large. 


WOMAN  AND  PROGRESS 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  that  the  nations  which  have 
subjected  women  as  the  pawn  and  plaything  of  man 
were,  as  a  rule,  arrayed  on  the  side  of  the  superman 
in  the  recent  struggle.  It  is  interesting  also  to  ob- 
serve the  significant  and  epoch-making  fact  of  the 
advancing  status  of  the  women  of  the  so  called  Allied 
nations  since  the  beginning  of  the  armistice.  With 
women  recognised  as  human  beings  and  as  entitled  to 
all  the  privileges  of  human  beings,  a  big  start  is  made 
toward  the  solution  of  the  point  here  at  issue.  The 
act  of  the  Presjdent  of  the  United  States  twice  appear- 


THE  WAR  ON  WHITE  SLAVERY      211 

ing  before  Congress  with  an  earnest  plea  for  full 
woman  suffrage,  and  the  act  of  the  British  people  in 
nominating  a  dozen  or  more  of  their  best  women  for 
places  in  Parliament — these  events  are  unprecedented 
in  the  history  of  mankind.  If  such  matters  be  car- 
ried to  their  logical  conclusions  it  means  in  time  that 
woman  shall  come  into  a  position  where  she  may  de- 
fend her  sex  against  inhuman  treatment  with  the 
powerful  instruments  of  the  ballot  and  the  law. 


BOY  TRAINING  INVOLVED 

The  men  who  are  clean  in  their  sex  life  are  those 
who  were  so  trained — either  intentionally  or  by  ac- 
cident— during  boyhood.  The  men  who  are  vile  and 
filthy  in  such  matters  learned  their  evil  ways  during 
the  same  juvenile  period.  He  that  was  then  filthy  will 
be  filthy  still.  The  future  of  society,  therefore,  in 
respect  to  the  social  evil  is  in  the  hands  of  the  trainers 
of  the  young,  especially  the  boys,  for,  except  in  a  few 
abnormal  cases,  girls  are  never  originally  the  aggres- 
sors in  the  sexual  sin.  A  very  simple  course  of  train- 
ing may  be  made  most  effective  in  directing  the  minds 
of  boys  toward  sexual  purity.  Little  space  remains 
for  discussion  of  the  matter  here,  but  a  brief  outline 
might  be  given  as  follows: 

1.  Safeguard  both  boys  and  girls  during  all  times 
against  the  use  of  coarse  and  suggestive  language — • 
or   stories  to  match — which   inculcate  the   evil   sex 
ideation. 

2.  Train  adolescent  young  people  always  in  co- 
educational institutions  bringing  them  daily  together 


212    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

in  open  and  free,  yet  chaperoned,  associations.  Thus 
fully  accustom  them  to  commingling  in  an  atmosphere 
of  purity  and  in  relations  which  stimulate  mutual  self- 
respect  and  esteem. 

3.  Take  over  the  love  affairs  of  the  young  and 
direct  these  emotional  interests  as  you  would  the  other 
fundamental  types  of  their  schooling.     Keep  in  mind 
here  the  ideal  of  a  slowly  approaching  happy  marriage 
and  the  sacred  relations  of  husband  and  wife  in  family 
rearing. 

4.  Teach  the  youth  to  regard  every  normal  girl  or 
woman  as  a  potential  mother  and  as  one  whom  Divine 
Wisdom  has  sent  into  the  world  to  carry  the  beautiful 
treasury  of  inheritance  on  to  a  succeeding  generation. 
Teach  him  to  think  of  himself  as  a  possible  lover  of 
every  worthy  young  woman  and  as  one  who  would 
fight  to  defend  her  virtue  rather  than  conspire  to 
destroy  it 

5.  Teach  the  adolescent  girl  how  to  safeguard  her 
virtue,  through  right  standards  of  conduct,  and  to 
think  of  herself  as  deserving  the  protection  of  every 
good  man  and  as  owing  to  society  a  clean  and  unde- 
filed  status  of  sexual  health. 

6.  Teach  the  two  together  the  fundamentals  of 
their  own  natures  and  the  right  methods  of  safeguard- 
ing themselves  against  all  forms  of  sexual  pollution. 
There  are  certain  definable  situations  where  the  temp- 
tation of  adolescent  young  people  may  be  strained  to 
the  breaking  point. 


THE  WAR  ON  WHITE  SLAVERY      213 

WILL  MEN  REFORM 

It  has  been  found  that  men  are  slow  and  ineffective 
in  reforming  themselves  once  they  have  learned  to 
patronise  the  red-light  business.  An  enforced  re- 
form is  almost  the  only  practical  procedure;  to  re- 
move to  a  place  where  such  patronage  is  impossible 
or  to  be  deterred  through  physical  restraint,  such  as  the 
new  army  life  has  recently  brought  to  men.  It  is  en- 
couraging and  very  suggestive  as  to  the  future  solution 
of  the  sexual  problem  to  hear  many  men  testify  as  to 
the  practicability  of  continence  after  a  rule  of  re- 
straint has  held  them  for  a  while.  Not  a  few  men  who 
were  "rounders"  during  civil  life  at  home  have  ex- 
pressed surprise  and  satisfaction  at  the  discovery  of 
the  abundant  physical  strength  and  poise  which  a  term 
of  abstinence  in  the  army  brought  them. 

Now,  since  those  in  charge  of  national  affairs  have 
made  a  sensational  discovery  of  the  far-reaching 
possibilities  of  enforced  sexual  decency  in  the  ranks 
of  the  great  army  of  fighters,  is  it  not  an  opportune 
time  to  plan  to  hold  the  same  general  rule  over  the 
heads  of  a  larger  army  of  civilians?  Government 
control  of  railroads,  telegraph  and  telephone  lines 
seems  to  promise  to  remain  as  an  economic  inheritance 
of  the  war.  Why  not  government  control  of  sexual 
re-direction  as  a  social  inheritance  of  the  war? 


XXI 

THE  INDIVIDUAL  AND  ALTRUISM 

Life  tends  to  grow  mean  and  selfish  in  case  one 
continues  long  in  the  exclusive  pursuit  of  his  vocation 
or  business,  unless  that  life  work  chances  to  include 
an  element  of  altruism.  Life  tends  to  grow  narrow 
and  eccentric  in  case  one  becomes  a  professional  altru- 
ist. The  exclusive  business  man  scorns  and  some- 
times almost  despises  the  professional  reformer.  The 
missionary,  long  set  apart  in  his  exclusive  altruism, 
mistrusts  and  pities  the  "indifferent"  and  "worldly" 
man  of  affairs,  as  he  regards  him.  What  is  the 
trouble  ?  Are  both  these  classes  in  some  degree  wrong 
and  misfits  in  a  progressive  social  order?  I  believe 
they  are 

SOCIETY   NEVER   FIXED 

The  country  will  never  be  completely  "saved."  The 
world  will  never  be  entirely  "safe  for  democracy." 
The  sinners  will  never  all  be  brought  into  the  fold.  The 
millennium  will  never  completely  arrive.  The  greatest 
law  of  the  universe  is  not  anything  fixed  or  perfect; 
it  is  change.  The  theory  of  an  eternal  "flux  and 
flow"  of  this  is  manifest  everywhere  and  the  universe 
itself  is  just  as  much  in  the  making  to-day  as  it  was 
a  million  years  ago.  Man  is  still  in  the  making,  the 

214 


THE  INDIVIDUAL  AND  ALTRUISM     215 

individual  is  always  changing — expanding  or  con- 
tracting in  his  personality,  living  or  slowly  dying — 
and  nothing  is  ever  finished  or  fixed  in  its  place. 

Who  desires  perfection  ?  What  do  we  want  with  a 
thing  which  does  not  move,  or  grow,  or  expand,  or 
continue  to  need  a  readjustment?  Who  desires  to  sit 
all  the  time  with  a  harp  in  his  hand,  a  crown  on  his 
head  and  eternally  singing  hallelujahs?  Monotony, 
lack  of  change — even  in  case  we  possess  the  sup- 
posedly dearest  treasure  ever  sought — this  becomes 
the  stalest,  dullest  thing  imaginable. 

It  is  not  meant  here  to  blame  the  professional  re- 
former in  a  personal  way.  The  desire  is  rather  to 
praise  him  for  his  unselfish  devotion  and  his  intrinsic 
goodness.  But  it  is  our  purpose  here  to  contend  that 
his  relation  to  society  at  large  as  presently  organ- 
ised is  an  anomaly,  and  his  life  as  judged  by  that  same 
society,  an  obsession.  His  disadvantage  is  tremendous 
and  his  effort  is  necessarily  a  tragedy.  Some  of  us 
believe  indeed  that  the  reformer  is  more  nearly  right 
than  the  remainder  of  the  world,  but  both  he  and  the 
others  cannot  be  right. 

It  is  not  our  purpose  here  to  condemn  the  man  who 
"attends  strictly  to  his  own  business  and  lets  other 
people  attend  to  theirs,"  who  lives  what  we  call  a 
decent,  honest  life — taking  care  of  his  family,  paying 
his  taxes  and  voting  at  election  whenever  his  interests 
are  involved.  As  things  are  now  rated  he  may  be  en- 
titled to  the  grade  of  "good  citizen." 


216    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

ALL  TO  BE  REFORMERS 

But  the  theory  here  to  be  advanced  is  that  every 
normal  person  should  be  in  some  sense  a  reformer, 
both  of  society  and  of  himself.  He  should  regard 
himself  as  needed  to  help  the  world  grow,  to  help 
society  get  back  on  its  feet  after  a  crisis  like  war,  to 
help  the  state  get  its  purposes  through,  to  help  the 
local  community  brace  up  and  clean  up,  to  re-examine 
himself  frequently  for  the  indication  of  a  necessary 
reform  of  his  own  character. 

In  a  very  practical  sense  we  all  belong  to  one  an- 
other, we  need  one  another's  examples  and  standards 
as  patterns  for  our  own  self-direction.  The  man  at 
my  side  who  becomes  course  and  debauched  weakens 
me,  the  man  who  fails  in  his  business  disheartens  me, 
while  those  of  the  opposite  character  add  strength  to 
my  own.  The  man  who  comes  to  me  as  a  professional 
reformer  is  likely  to  presume  too  much  upon  my  weak- 
ness and  neglect  and  otherwise  underrate  me.  I  im- 
mediately feel  myself  putting  up  a  guard  against  him 
or  shrinking  from  him.  If  he  has  another  business 
than  reform,  however,  and  is  doing  his  altruistic  work 
as  an  important  incident  of  his  life,  I  am  more  in- 
clined to  listen  to  his  plea  and  perhaps  join  him. 

A  compromise  between  the  professional  reformer 
and  the  exclusive  business  man  is  the  urgent  need  of 
society  as  it  moves  to-day.  We  should  then  have  a 
hundred  times  more  reformers  and  business  would 
suffer  not  a  whit.  The  powerful  stimulus  for  general 
reform  and  for  society  to  become  one  hundred  per 
cent,  reformers,  as  occasioned  by  the  war,  gave  us  an 


THE  INDIVIDUAL  AND  ALTRUISM    217 

example  of  the  practice  which  we  might  well  desire 
to  see  perpetuated.  Every  one  giving,  boosting,  deny- 
ing himself  some  pleasure  or  privilege,  consciously 
attending  part  time  to  the  common  good — that  is  the 
new  rule  of  individual  procedure  which  would  become 
cumulative  in  its  efforts  and  would  advance  the  cause 
of  human  welfare  immeasurabl"  as  compared  with  old 
methods. 

CAN  WE  HOLD  THE  POINT  ? 

Shall  we  be  able  to  profit  by  the  experience  of  all 
boosting  together  during  the  war?  Or,  is  business 
to  go  back  to  its  mean,  selfish  basis  while  the  further 
advancement  of  society  is  to  be  left  again  to  the  few 
professional  reformers?  Just  here  is  to  be  a  test  of 
the  permanent  strength  of  the  American  nation.  With 
all  spending  part  time  in  the  field  avocationally  as  help- 
ers and  backers  of  the  common  good,  with  thousands 
offering  suggestions  and  schemes  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  some  worthy  purpose,  we  should  continue  to 
evolve  a  consensus  of  opinion  and  a  unity  of  action 
that  would  amount  to  a  tremendous  force  in  bringing 
about  reform. 

The  progress  of  America  in  the  world  war  was  in 
some  respects  the  marvel  of  human  history.  And, 
why?  Simply  because  tens  of  thousands,  not  merely 
the  few,  went  into  the  stimulating  game  of  finding 
out  a  better  way  to  accomplish  the  several  separate  and 
larger  divisions  of  the  work.  Ideas,  ideas!  From 
every  quarter  they  came.  Men  and  women  by  the 
thousands  contributed  until  the  head  workers  found  it 
necessary  to  appoint  committees  of  experts  to  go  over 


218    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

the  proffered  plans  for  every  attempted  task  and  single 
out  the  practical  ideas  and  suggestions.  The  brainiest 
general  manager  and  the  humblest  shopworker,  with 
all  classes  between,  got  into  the  game  eagerly  and  did 
a  worthy  part.  Nobody  in  particular  won  the  war, 
so  far  as  America  was  concerned.  The  glory  belongs 
to  the  millions  of  "reformers,"  "missionary  workers,'* 
"avocational  altruists,"  who  did  a  mighty  team  work 
together.  There  were  hundreds  of  instances  wherein 
obscure  individuals  contributed  a  device,  an  idea  or  an 
invention  which  proved  highly  valuable.  There  were 
many  other  instances  where  the  method  or  the  instru- 
ment finally  decided  upon  was  a  very  composite  affair, 
embodying  the  thought  of  many. 

Now,  all  the  foregoing  explanation  of  how  we  did 
our  conspicuous  part  in  winning  the  war  amounts  to 
saying  that  we  were  drawn  into  the  task  with  such 
enthusiasm  that  we  acquired  a  habit  of  altruism.  We 
all  for  the  time  became  missionaries,  backing  our  sol- 
dier boys  on  their  quest  of  the  heart  of  humanity.  And 
very  significant  also  is  the  fact  that  our  altruism 
was  necessarily  bound  up  with  our  egoism.  "Busi- 
ness as  usual"  was  the  watchword,  but  business  partly 
for  the  sake  of  our  own  gain  and  partly  for  the  sake 
of  the  nation's  mission. 


A    NEW   AMERICANISM 

There  is  a  so  called  American  Missionary  Society. 
All  praise  to  its  efforts  and  all  glory  to  its  accomplish- 
ments. But  it  is  not  big  and  general  as  it  should  be. 
There  would  soon  develop  a  conspicuous  turn  in  the 


THE  INDIVIDUAL  AND  ALTRUISM    219 

course  of  human  progress  if  the  American  people 
should  all  unite  in  a  permanent  world-wide  mission  as 
urged  in  a  former  chapter.  We  should  scarcely  miss 
one  hundred  million  dollars  per  annum  or  one  dollar 
per  capita.  This  amount  devoted  to  the  equipment 
and  support  of  a  general  crusade  of  missionary  assist- 
ance would  prove  a  tremendous  blessing  both  to  the 
givers  and  to  the  beneficiaries.  The  effort  would  in- 
clude a  propaganda  of  health,  sanitation,  general 
schooling  for  all  children,  moral  and  spiritual  well 
being,  improved  methods  of  industry  and  thrift.  Per- 
haps the  best  approximation  of  this  idea  is  our  altruis- 
tic programme  in  the  Philippines,  where  we  seem  to 
have  no  motive  other  than  to  set  the  benighted  in- 
habitants upon  their  feet,  and  finally  to  make  them  a 
happy,  independent  and  self-sustaining  people. 

If  the  American  people  will  sign  a  heavy  indemnity 
bond  not  to  exploit  the  people  of  Mexico  or  their 
natural  resources  and  to  observe  the  strictest  non-inter- 
ference with  their  state  or  church — if  we  should  pro- 
ceed with  a  large  and  bountiful  scheme  of  uplift  and 
general  enlightenment  in  Mexico — that  prostrated 
country  could  be  set  on  its  feet  in  a  decade  or  so  and 
made  to  prosper  in  all  things  material  and  spiritual  as 
never  before  dreamed  of  by  its  ignorant  inhabitants. 
Nothing  to  sell,  nothing  to  trade,  nothing  to  gain — 
this  should  be  the  motto  of  Big  Brother  America  while 
he  goes  into  Mexico  with  his  missionary  movement. 

Imagine  an  American  Red  Cross  centre  in  every  city 
in  Mexico,  with  its  corps  of  nurses,  despensers,  teach- 
ers and  demonstrators  of  all  that  is  best  known  upon 
the  subject  of  health  and  sanitation.  Imagine  a  mis- 


220    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

sionary  school  in  every  local  centre  of  that  country, 
with  a  full  equipment  for  free  instruction  of  the  head, 
hand  and  heart  of  all  children  whose  parents  could  be 
induced  to  send  them.  Imagine  a  school  of  American 
experts  in  agriculture  and  soil  treatment  demonstrat- 
ing to  the  natives  there  how  to  produce  the  best  crops 
and  animals  and  how  to  make  the  most  profitable  use 
of  the  same.  This  service  could  be  likewise  adapted 
to  the  mining  and  manufacturing  industries,  and 
should  carry  with  it  a  full  guarantee  of  the  non-ex- 
ploitation of  the  wealth  of  the  country  by  foreign 
capital. 


BACK  TO  THE  INDIVIDUAL 

Now,  our  motive  in  seeking  an  outlet  for  an  en- 
larged and  continuous  programme  of  missionary  effort 
for  the  American  people  as  a  whole  is  partly  to  illus- 
trate the  best  possible  motive  for  individual  altruism. 
If  such  a  purpose  can  be  kept  before  the  public  and  its 
policies  constantly  re-directed  by  their  discussions  and 
managed  by  their  appointed  committees,  then  we 
shall  find  it  comparatively  easy  to  keep  ourselves  all 
the  while  in  a  missionary  mood,  as  proved  to  be  the 
case  during  the  war. 

But  all  this  consideration  of  individual  altruism 
most  certainly  leads  us  back  to  the  problem  of  training 
the  young  and  to  the  task  of  inculcating  the  missionary 
spirit  along  with  the  general  programme  of  exercises 
in  the  schools.  Hitherto  we  have  contended  for  a 
course  of  instruction  in  civics,  loyalty  and  patriotism. 
Now,  why  not  add  the  point  of  altruistic  service  ?  A 


THE  INDIVIDUAL  AND  ALTRUISM     221 

careful  examination  of  the  standard  course  of  study 
written  for  the  public  schools  shows  an  over  amount 
of  instruction  in  getting  and  practically  no  instruction 
in  giving.  This  course  as  now  managed  is  well  calcu- 
lated to  deprive  the  child  of  whatever  natural  impulse 
of  altruism  he  may  possess  and  to  harden  his  heart 
against  service  and  missionary  work. 

The  contest  idea,  the  thought  of  competition  still 
dominates  the  method  and  the  sentiment  of  the  school. 
Indeed,  here  is  another  of  our  national  obsessions: 
the  theory  that  the  school  is  primarily  an  institution 
for  training  the  individual  to  win  over  others  who  are 
supposed  to  become  his  future  competitors.  Study 
hard,  get  ahead,  be  prepared  to  defeat  your  com- 
petitors ;  only  the  strong  can  win  while  the  many  weak 
ones  must  fall  out;  defeat  your  opponents  and  win 
in  this  game  or  else  fall  back  to  the  ignominy  of 
common  labour — such  is  the  discouraging  obsession 
into  which  the  typical  American  system  has  fallen,  the 
university,  the  elementary  and  the  secondary  schools 
all  inclusive. 


EVERY  CHILD  A  MISSIONARY 

Every  child  could  and  should  be  trained  from  the 
first  in  the  true  missionary  spirit.  He  should  be 
taught  to  struggle;  yes,  but  to  overcome  his  weaker 
self  and  not  some  other  child  at  his  side.  He  should 
be  taught  to  win  honours;  yes,  but  the  honour  should 
be  that  of  service  performed  at  some  place  of  human 
need.  He  should  be  taught  success ;  yes,  but  a  form 


222    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

of  success  which  would  bear  the  test  of  some  kind  of 
altruism. 

No  child  should  be  given  a  grade  or  promotion  in 
the  school  until  he  is  ready  for  some  kind  of  mission- 
ary service  to  society,  and  until  he  is  conscious  of  his 
missionary  relation  thereto,  to  give  a  certain  part  of 
his  time,  his  talent,  his  handwork,  his  invention,  his 
ideas,  his  genius,  his  anything  worth  contributing — 
this  should  be  the  test  and  it  should  be  elastic  enough 
to  allow  for  individuality.  And,  finally,  when  the 
child  quits  the  formal  school  for  his  vocation,  there 
should  be  made  a  careful  test  of  both  his  disposition 
and  his  trained  ability  to  render  something  back  to  the 
society  which  has  expended  so  much  to  produce  him. 
Here  is  the  question  to  put  to  him :  Explain  in  detail 
how  you  propose  to  render  through  life  an  unselfish, 
unpaid  service  to  society.  Thus  instead  of  teaching 
children  in  the  school  how  to  defeat  and  hinder  one 
another,  we  should  be  instructing  them  as  to  methods 
whereby  they  might  join  their  efforts  with  all  others 
in  a  contribution  to  the  common  good.  All  this  would 
naturally  strengthen  the  individual  for  earning  a 
competence  and  for  sustaining  himself  in  the  world  of 
business  enterprise. 


XXII 
ANOTHER  GREAT  STRUGGLE  COMING 

"He  was  not  one  of  your  story-book  heroes  who  calls 
for  his  mother  or  sweetheart  when  at  the  point  of 
death.  He  just  puffed  away  at  his  cigarette,  cursed 
the  boche  till  his  voice  faded  into  a  whisper  and 
quietly  went  west." — From  a  soldier's  letter  reporting 
the  death  of  a  comrade. 

This  twentieth  century  has  already  seen  the  greatest 
physical  struggle  in  the  history  of  mankind  to  date  and 
it  is  destined  to  witness  the  greatest  moral  struggle 
ever  known.  The  coming  conflict  will  slowly  gain 
headway  during  the  next  decade  here  in  America  and 
will  ultimately  spread  around  the  world.  The  ordinary 
boy,  and  perhaps  the  ordinary  girl,  will  be  the  prize 
allotted  to  the  winner,  as  its  issue  will  determine  who 
is  to  control  the  destiny  of  the  young,  the  seductive 
nicotine  or  the  sympathetic  parents  and  teachers. 

THE  POINT  AT  ISSUE 

It  is  yet  difficult  for  even  those  most  concerned  about 
the  future  of  the  individual  and  of  the  race  to  under- 
stand precisely  what  has  happened  during  this  present 
century  to  render  nicotine  a  new  and  distinctive  prob- 
lem in  the  life  of  society.  It  is  this :  the  introduction 

223 


224    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

of  tobacco  as  a  factor  in  the  character-building  of  boys 
and  youths.  Less  than  a  generation  ago,  the  tobacco 
habit  was  confined  to  men  and  as  a  rule  it  was  not 
begun  till  the  years  of  maturity  had  been  reached.  The 
boy  who  smoked  was  a  rare  individual  and  marked  as 
something  of  a  delinquent  or  a  degenerate.  But  to- 
day, literally  millions  of  boys  ranging  from  age  seven 
upward,  are  thorough-going  victims  of  the  cigarette. 
The  recent  war  period  probably  doubled  this  army  of 
regular  juvenile  smokers.  And  while  the  insidious 
nicotine  poison  stunts  the  physique  of  boys,  weakens 
their  morals,  impairs  their  intellect  and  lowers  their 
general  efficiency,  it  strikes  even  a  greater  blow  at  the 
spiritual  instinct.  The  smoking  of  tobacco  during  the 
character-forming  period  of  the  individual  life  is  not 
only  the  greatest  menace  to  our  spiritual  welfare  to- 
day but  it  threatens  to  take  the  place  as  a  substitute 
for  religion. 

Indeed,  on  a  vast  and  unprecedented  scale  the  to- 
bacco interests  are  conducting  a  world-wide  campaign 
for  the  enslavement  of  boys  and  youths  to  the  subtle 
effects  of  nicotine.  It  has  been  found  that  the  younger 
the  boy  when  he  begins  to  smoke  the  heavier  he  will 
use  the  narcotic  and  the  larger  will  be  his  lifetime 
contribution  to  the  tobacco  business.  Also,  once  he 
is  thoroughly  habituated  to  the  practice  of  smoking 
the  chances  that  he  will  continue  are  more  than  nine 
to  one. 

As  yet  the  church  and  religious  workers  are  not 
awake  to  the  dreadful  opposition  which  nicotine  is 
about  to  assert  boldly  against  the  sound  principles  of 
religion.  The  awakening  may  come  too  late.  And 


ANOTHER  GREAT  STRUGGLE  COMING    225 

while  it  might  seem  that  the  war  has  aroused  a  new 
religious  spirit  among  men  the  hopeful  situation  will 
doubtless  lapse  into  a  sort  of  pipe-dream.  However, 
the  purpose  here  is  not  to  contend  that  tobacco-using 
and  Christianity  are  incompatible  but  rather  to  try 
to  show  that  early  tobacco  using  is  a  sinister  influence 
in  the  life  of  our  youth  to-day  in  that  it  cuts  off  their 
prospect  of  sane  and  wholesome  religious  practice. 

But  in  order  to  get  at  the  purpose  as  stated  above 
we  must  proceed  in  a  rather  roundabout  way. 

As  we  view  the  individual  man  and  the  masses  in 
their  inter-relations  we  observe  the  most  critical  period 
of  the  former  as  being  that  of  the  emotional  storm 
which  surges  through  his  being  during  the  years 
following  adolescence.  The  first  phase  is  that  of  the 
social  instinct  as  it  seeks  an  outlet  through  experi- 
ence with  the  crowd,  and  therefore  sanction  of  the 
public  mind;  and  the  second  is  the  religious  instinct, 
which  seeks  a  favourable  relation  with  what  is  con- 
ceived to  be  the  Divine  Mind.  Now,  we  cannot  hope 
to  set  the  individual  squarely  on  his  feet  as  a  helper  of 
society  till  we  have  assisted  him  through  this  second 
period  of  emotional  struggle. 

THE  GENERAL  IDEA   RECALLED 

Let  us  not  forget  that  we  are  attempting  in  the 
course  of  these  discussions  to  present  a  new  and  more 
comprehensive  theory  for  the  training  of  the  individ- 
ual than  is  common  for  the  makers  of  the  ordinary 
curricula.  Our  plan  embodies,  first,  the  idea  that  the 
individual  must  realize  through  his  own  trial-and- 


226    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

error  experiences  the  larger  elements  of  the  racial 
inheritance  within  him;  second,  the  idea  that  the 
course  of  training  must  be  headed  all  the  time  toward 
a  participation  in  the  experiments  with  new  modes  of 
self-direction  and  self -improvement  in  which  the  race 
at  large  is  engaged ;  and,  third,  the  idea  that  vocational 
occupation  or  economic  success  is  not  properly  re- 
garded as  an  end  in  education  but  merely  a  happy 
incident  or  by-product  thereof. 


THE    EMOTIONAL    UNREST 


Nowhere  under  heaven  is  there  to  be  found  a  more 
superb  specimen  of  God's  handiwork  than  a  completely 
developed  man — unless  it  be  his  feminine  counterpart 
— a  man  in  full  bloom  and  vigour  of  life,  blessed  with 
the  development  of  all  his  best  physical  and  spiritual 
powers,  and  capable  of  directing  his  own  career  in  ac- 
cordance with  a  system  of  well  chosen  ideals.  But 
such  a  man  is  not  necessarily  a  scholar,  a  scientist  or 
a  rare  expert  of  any  class  or  kind.  He  is  only  one  of 
the  millions  of  common-born  who  has  realised  himself 
with  relative  completeness.  But  at  certain  points  in 
the  life  history  of  every  such  man  there  is  a  large 
amount  of  struggle  which  is  initiated  by  an  emotional 
unrest  or  a  painful  dissatisfaction  with  conditions  as 
they  then  are.  In  an  attempt  to  throw  off  extreme 
embarrassments,  or  what  appear  to  be  intolerable  re- 
straints, the  youth  normally  struggles  out  upon  higher 
ground. 

Wherefore,  adolescence  is  the  great  storm  period  of 
the  individual  life.  A  new,  keen  sensitiveness  to  the 


ANOTHER  GREAT  STRUGGLE  COMING    227 

presence  of  others  marks  its  beginning.  Fear  of 
failure,  of  criticism,  of  being  irregular  or  off  colour 
in  social  standards,  now  disturbs  the  inner  conscious- 
ness of  the  youth  and  brings  him  much  dissatisfaction 
with  himself.  As  a  result  of  this  secret  pain  he  be- 
gins a  long  series  of  determined  responses  or  an  emo- 
tional struggle  to  appear  more  worthy  in  the  eyes  of 
the  society  around  him.  The  far-reaching  signi- 
ficance of  this  love-dream  period  we  have  discussed 
previously. 

THE  CRY  OF  RELIGION 

It  is  the  second  aspect  of  the  emotional  unrest  of 
adolescence — the  religious  phase — which  we  shall  now 
consider.  At  about  the  middle  of  the  so-called  teen 
years  the  typical  youth  becomes  emotionally  disturbed 
about  his  religion  and  the  salvation  of  his  soul,  and  is 
ready  for  what  we  call  conversion  to  an  active  faith. 
Just  as  during  his  epoch  of  social  sensitiveness  he  was 
disturbed  again  and  again  with  the  secret  questioning, 
"Who  are  all  these  persons  watching  me,  and  how  can 
I  become  pleasing  to  them  ?"  his  new  self-inquiry  now 
becomes,  "Who  is  this  All-Seeing  One  looking  into 
the  depths  of  my  soul  for  a  sign  of  my  belief  in  Him?" 
In  short,  "What  shall  I  do  to  be  saved  ?"  is  a  universal 
cry  which  calls  despairingly  out  of  the  depth  of  the 
normal  adolescent  nature  everywhere.  At  first,  this 
sudden  sense  of  the  disapproval  of  the  Divine  Mind  is 
a  matter  of  deep  pain  and  soul  anguish.  Evidently  the 
intense  dissatisfaction  here  inflicted  on  youth  is  meant 
to  initiate  a  series  of  determined  efforts  to  "get  right 
with  God,"  as  we  say,  and  finally  to  live  in  His  service. 


22%    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

The  vital  question  here  arising  is  this :  How  can  we 
provide  that  the  youth  suddenly  struck  with  the  fear  of 
God  be  served  with  the  instrumentalities  for  reliev- 
ing him  from  the  pain  of  God's  disfavour?  We  cheat 
him  out  of  a  vital  section  of  self -directive  experience 
by  the  use  of  the  dopes,  drink  and  other  forms  of  dis- 
sipation, as  before  stated. 


A  FALSE  SENSE  OF  PEACE 

Anything  which  gives  the  youth  a  false  sense  of 
peace  at  this  time  of  emotional  struggle,  stops  his  ef- 
fort and  shuts  off  his  possible  schooling.  When  con- 
science speaks,  go  seek  the  answer.  When  there  is  a 
lost  sense  of  self-respect,  strive  to  make  amends. 
When  there  is  a  conviction  that  God  is  displeased  at 
your  conduct,  seek  peace  with  Him — thus  working  out 
your  own  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling.  Or, 
should  we  put  the  troubled  conscience  to  sleep  with 
various  dopes,  drinks  and  other  forms  of  dissipation, 
till  it  cries  out  no  more?  We  believe  the  former  course 
to  be  the  correct  one  and  the  only  one  which  will 
guarantee  at  length  a  big,  wholesome  personality. 
But  society  to-day  is  following  the  latter  course.  It  is 
defeating  certain  of  its  own  best  purposes  and  those 
of  the  individual  as  well  by  shutting  off  the  normal 
struggle  of  youth  to  free  himself. 

RELIGION   AS  A   GROWTH 

In  its  outward  forms  religion  is  a  sane  and  helpful 
system  of  behaviour  acquired  by  the  practice  of  the 


ANOTHER  GREAT  STRUGGLE  COMING    229 

individual.  Under  a  normal  course  of  procedure  it 
begins  with  the  crude  fear  and  mystery  of  youth  and 
slowly  develops  into  a  complex  set  of  happy  and  sym- 
pathetic relations  both  to  God  and  man.  The  church 
has  suffered  long  under  the  obsession  that  religion 
suddenly  strikes  the  individual  with  a  conviction  of  his 
sin  and  that  he  is  then  and  there  born  again  and 
enters  the  kingdom  of  the  accepted  of  God.  The  old 
idea  carried  with  it  the  dogma  that  at  this  time  the 
convert  accepted  certain  conditions  of  faith  or  belief 
and  that  he  was  then  and  there  "saved." 

But  as  analysed  by  the  psychologic  study  now  ac- 
ceptable to  the  modern  religious  teachers  the  new  con- 
vert, though  stirred  deeply  by  a  conviction  of  his 
sins,  is  not  saved  but  has  only  manifested  a  start  to- 
ward salvation.  To  be  saved  he  must  begin  to  act  on 
his  new  faith  and  must  go  on  from  that  point  to  a  con- 
tinuous discovery  of  the  truth  of  religion  as  best 
related  to  his  own  life. 

There  is  no  use  questioning  the  fact  that  in  case  of 
the  youth  one  cigarette  inhaled  for  a  minute  or  two 
will  give  a  feeling  of  rest  and  security,  of  freedom 
from  trouble  or  anxiety.  It  will  temporarily  put  aside 
his  sense  of  unworthiness,  his  thought  of  the  serious 
consequences  of  failure  and  will  give  everything 
relative  to  the  duty  at  hand  a  roseate  hue.  But  the 
cigarette,  as  it  affects  youth,  does  not  actually  remove 
trouble  or  danger  or  responsibility;  it  simply  causes 
these  to  disappear.  It  therefore  quiets  the  ambition 
and  takes  away  the  desire  to  strive  to  improve  con- 
ditions which  are  fundamentally  bad. 

To  the  youth,  therefore,  smoking  seems  like  an  easy 


230    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

and  inexpensive  short  cut  to  the  end  of  his  troubles, 
and  he  is  quick  to  take  advantage  of  it.  At  his  time 
of  immature  judgment,  to  win  his  point  in  the  easiest 
way  appears  to  be  a  common  rule  of  progress.  Get 
your  advantage  in  the  easiest  way  possible.  Get  your 
lessons  without  study  if  you  can.  Get  your  money 
without  earning  it  through  serious  effort.  All  these 
get-there-quick  methods  are  to  him,  for  the  time  being, 
very  sensible  mottoes.  Finally,  he  reasons,  you  can 
drive  away  your  troubles  with  a  penny  cigarette.  Why 
pay  more  for  an  antidote? 


TAKE  THE  JUVENILE  CENSUS 

Those  who  are  interested  in  the  cigarette  as  related 
to  the  religion  of  youth  and  as  a  factor  in  the  future  of 
the  church  are  asked  to  make  a  quiet  investigation  of 
the  matter  and  thus  to  satisfy  themselves  on  the  posi- 
tion here  outlined.  Let  them  count  the  cigarette- 
smoking  boys  in  any  Sunday  School  and  find,  as  they 
will,  few  if  any  of  this  class  present  who  have  not  been 
compelled  to  attend  by  some  strong  home  influence. 
They  will  find  relatively  few  of  this  compulsory  class, 
for  such  boys  soon  break  away  from  home  authority. 

Let  the  investigator  now  turn  to  the  adolescent  de- 
partment of  the  Sunday  School  and  of  the  other 
church  societies  and  discover  how  few  cigarette 
smokers  there  are  regularly  in  attendance  and  how 
seldom  one  of  these  takes  an  active  part  in  the  religious 
service.  All  this  applies  especially  to  the  Protestant 
churches. 

Almost    without   exception    the   young    cigarettist 


ANOTHER  GREAT  STRUGGLE  COMING    231 

scoffs  at  the  religion  of  his  non-smoking  associates. 
He  regards  it  as  a  trivial  matter  and  is  fully  satisfied 
that  he  has  something  more  appropriate  for  a  manly 
appearance  in  society.  If  he  is  found  at  the  young 
peoples'  religious  meeting  at  all  usually  it  is  because 
he  has  been  drawn  there  by  the  presence  of  some 
young  woman.  And  his  influence  upon  the  girl  of  his 
choice  is  very  much  in  the  direction  away  from  the 
church,  with  the  dance,  the  theatre  or  some  place  of 
social  pastime  as  a  substitute. 

CHRIST  OR  THE  CIGARETTE 

With  the  ordinary  Christian  churches  and  the  relig- 
ious bodies  allied  thereto,  in  so  far  as  they  try  to  deal 
constructively  with  the  youth  of  the  land,  the  issue 
has  now  got  to  be  met.  It  will  be  Christ  or  the  cigar- 
ette but  it  will  not  be  both.  No  youth  can  serve  at 
once  these  two  masters.  They  are  Christ  and  anti- 
Christ.  The  fine  sense  of  need  of  the  Christ  in  one's 
life  and  the  appropriate  feeling  of  reverence  and  hu- 
mility are  transformed  into  a  jest  by  the  influence  of 
the  poison  on  the  nerves  and  in  the  brain. 

Through  the  habit  of  smoking  the  normal  inner  un- 
rest which  would  initiate  strife  and  development  being 
repeatedly  put  to  rest,  the  victim  finally  settles  down  to 
nothing  better  than  an  intellectual  regard  for  religion 
and  he  becomes  an  apologist  for  the  church.  He  is 
never  able  to  appreciate  the  meaning  of  real  religion 
and  real  heart  service  because  of  having  been  denied 
these  things  during  the  period  of  character  develop- 
ment. Thus  the  church  has  lost  permanently  his  much 


232    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

needed  sympathy  and  help  and  the  community  has  lost 
his  hearty  co-operation  in  the  majority  of  its  best 
purposes  in  behalf  of  the  young. 

THE  PROBLEM  SUMMARISED 

There  will  be  no  attempt  here  even  to  outline  the 
long  and  depressing  array  of  evidence  to  show  the 
extreme  damage  of  the  cigarette  to  the  physical,  moral 
and  intellectual  aspects  of  juvenile  life.  The  one  issue 
here  presented  is  enough  to  give  us  most  serious  re- 
flections as  to  the  future  of  our  youths  and  the  spirit- 
ual welfare  of  society.  We  may  preach  and  argue  and 
resolve  to  the  extreme  limit  as  to  forms  of  combating 
the  cigarette  habit  among  youths.  But  there  is  only 
one  effectual  way  to  deal  with  this  monster  evil  and 
that  is  to  apply  the  psychology  of  publicity  and  propa- 
ganda in  practically  the  same  manner  as  used  by  the 
tobacco  interests  in  building  up  their  business.  To 
fight  an  enemy  successfully  you  are  often  compelled 
to  use  his  weapons.  For  the  time  being  the  battle 
against  the  cigarette  is  lost.  Anti-Christ  is  in  posses- 
sion of  the  best  weapons,  the  most  munitions,  and  is 
holding  all  the  front-line  trenches.  When  will  the  host 
arise  to  march  forward  and  battle  the  nicotine  super- 
man to  his  death  ? 


XXIII 
PSYCHOLOGY  AND  HUMAN  BETTERMENT 

As  an  instrument  for  general  education,  for  self- 
direction,  for  success  in  practical  business,  and  for  so- 
cial betterment,  psychology  stands  in  a  class  to  itself. 
If  we  assume  that  our  greatest  hope  of  the  self-gov- 
ernment and  the  self -improvement  of  nations  is  to  be 
grounded  on  Common  Man's  knowledge  of  himself, 
then  we  must  admit  at  once  that  a  universal  study  of 
the  psychology  of  human  behaviour  is  the  best  imme- 
diate step  toward  that  cherished  end. 

HOW  THE  MIND  GROWS 

I  watched  a  cooing  infant  feebly  attempting  to 
thrust  a  rubber  rattle  into  its  tiny  mouth.  I  watched 
a  romping  three-y ear-old  trying  awkwardly  to  spin  his 
older  brother's  top.  I  watched  a  little  girl  fumbling 
in  a  first  effort  to  sew  up  a  garment  for  her  dolly.  I 
watched  a  big-footed  scout  eagerly  hurrying  off  to  the 
woods  for  a  hike.  I  watched  a  bashful  youth  suffer- 
ing from  alternate  palpitation  and  cold  perspiration 
while  the  girl  he  secretly  loved  was  walking  by.  I 
watched  a  candidate  suddenly  grown  affable  and  cor- 
dial after  his  nomination  for  the  assembly.  I  watched 
a  fortune-wheel  trickster  smoothly  playing  up  the  win- 

233 


234    MAIST  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

ners  and  hurrying  the  losers  quietly  away.  I  watched 
the  passing  throngs  upon  the  streets  of  the  great  city 
and  saw  in  every  face  and  every  manner  some  sign  of 
the  thought  and  action  which  had  gone  on  before  and 
given  meaning  to  the  present  conduct. 

So  the  rhythm  of  human  events  swings  on.  To 
the  child,  the  world  is  filled  with  things — just  things, 
to  get,  to  have,  to  use.  To  the  boy,  it  is  deeds.  The 
rough  and  heroic  accomplishments  of  men  and  other 
creatures  absorb  the  entire  attention.  But  to  the 
youth,  the  world  is  filled  with  people — men  and 
women,  young  and  old,  with  thoughts  and  feelings  and 
a  thousand  moods.  If  we  could  only  bring  in  every 
fifteen-year-old  at  the  time  of  his  new  social  awaken- 
ing, and  conduct  him  through  a  systematic  study  of 
the  psychology  of  the  behaviour  of  every  human  class 
and  temperament — the  salvation  of  the  race  would 
certainly  be  accelerated.  Also  the  youth  thus  guided 
would  be  led  into  an  endless  enticing  quest  of  the  in- 
tricacies of  this  grand  old  nature  of  ours. 

ARE  WE  STAR-GAZERS  STILL? 

The  most  ancient  philosophers  of  which  we  have 
record  appear  to  have  been  little  concerned  about  man 
and  his  career  on  the  earth.  They  peered  far  off  into 
the  starry  firmament  and  asked  themselves  endless 
questions  which  man  has  never  yet  been  able  to  answer. 
Thus  it  is,  too,  with  the  common  individual  to-day. 
He  is  extremely  slow  at  self -discovery.  When  as  a 
walking  child  he  first  beholds  the  image  of  himself  in 
a  mirror  it  is  thought  to  be  the  form  of  another  child. 


PSYCHOLOGY  AND  BETTERMENT  235 

If  left  alone  to  stumble  and  find  his  way  through  the 
world  as  best  he  can  he  may  go  on  through  all  the 
stages  of  life  and  to  the  brink  of  the  grave  still  gazing 
wonderingly  at  the  stars  but  questioning  his  own  na- 
ture almost  not  at  all. 

Wherefore,  it  is  our  purpose  now  to  insist  that 
psychology  is  the  greatest  instrumentality  of  self-reve- 
lation which  man  has  ever  discovered.  It  is  the  key 
to  his  individual  success,  to  his  collective  progress  and 
to  a  door  that  will  open  the  way  toward  a  status  far 
higher  than  he  has  ever  before  reached  during  his 
earthly  existence. 

At  the  time  of  the  settlement  of  America  illiteracy 
was  the  accepted  rule  of  the  masses,  while  literacy  was 
regarded  as  the  special  instrument  of  the  few  who 
might  preach  or  teach.  The  school  as  we  have  it  now 
is  a  sort  of  accidental  offspring  of  the  church.  New 
converts  needed  to  be  able  to  understand  and  defend 
the  scriptures.  Hence  they  were  taught  to  read.  It 
is  difficult  for  us  to  realise  the  slow  and  painful  road 
over  which  the  human  mind  had  to  travel  before  the 
peoples  of  the  world  finally  accepted  the  idea  of  the 
necessity  and  the  practicability  of  universal  elementary 
schooling. 

PSYCHOLOGIC  AWAKENING 

Psychology  has  been  travelling  over  the  same  tedi- 
ous course  as  universal  education.  This  young  branch 
of  study  was  for  considerable  time  a  division  of  meta- 
physics, a  form  of  speculation  about  the  mind  and  the 
soul.  But  a  short  generation  ago  the  masterful  Wil- 
liam James  explained  to  the  world  in  an  epoch-making 


236    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

work  how  man  might  systematically  study  his  own 
mind  and  apply  this  knowledge  to  the  practical  affairs 
of  life.  Even  then  this  charming  new  subject  of  study 
failed  to  find  its  way  on  to  the  full  attention  of  the 
masses.  Finally,  however,  it  reached  the  point  of 
being  regarded  as  a  necessary  discipline  of  the  teacher 
and  as  something  of  a  convenience  for  the  minister  of 
the  gospel. 

Come  to  examine  the  matter,  it  is  strange  that  we 
should  accept  of  a  psychology  of  teaching  and  not  a 
psychology  of  merchandising;  that  we  should  accept 
a  psychology  of  preaching  and  not  a  psychology  of 
plowing;  that  we  should  finally  accept  a  psychology  of 
play  but  not  a  psychology  of  work,  a  psychology  of 
advertising  and  not  a  psychology  of  buying.  And  yet 
there  is  a  most  practical,  a  most  valuable  psychology 
of  any  and  all  these  lines  of  human  endeavour. 

Psychology  is  the  instrument  best  suited  to  fill  up 
the  common  life  of  man  anywhere  he  may  be  at  work 
with  a  constant  flow  of  rich  and  interesting  ideas. 
Life  is  made  up  chiefly  of  thought  and  sentiment. 
The  life  more  abundant,  under  analysis,  proves  to  be 
chiefly  a  matter  of  a  happy,  radiant,  stimulating  flow 
of  ideas  about  oneself  and  the  relations  of  his  effort 
to  the  duties  which  lie  before  him.  The  man  who 
can  think  of  himself  in  the  largest  number  of  happy 
relations  to  his  work  is  the  one  who  enjoys  the  fullest 
sense  of  power  and  supremacy.  The  study  of  psychol- 
ogy is  best  suited  to  yield  him  such  a  large  fund  of 
spiritual  wealth. 


PSYCHOLOGY  AND  BETTERMENT    237 

WHAT  OF  THE  "THREE  R'S?" 

Of  the  traditional  "three  R's"  reading  is  far  the 
most  in  common  use,  writing  is  perhaps  less  in  de- 
mand than  ever  before,  on  account  of  the  many  new 
instruments  for  personal  communication.  It  may  go 
out  of  use  entirely  and  a  personal  radiograph  take  the 
place.  Arithmetic  is  becoming  slowly  obsolete,  as  ma- 
chines are  introduced  to  do  our  calculating.  Probably 
a  small  device  which  can  be  concealed  in  the  pocket 
will  do  all  the  necessary  figuring  for  the  future  man 
of  affairs. 

NEW  DEMANDS  FOR  PSYCHOLOGY 

But  the  study  of  human  behaviour  was  never  so 
much  in  demand.  For  the  domestic  helper  to  know 
how  to  think  out  in  advance  every  stroke  of  her  day's 
work  may  mean  a  saving  of  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  ef- 
fort. For  the  iron-worker  to  understand  the  intrica- 
cies of  applying  his  mind  to  every  movement  of  his 
muscle  may  increase  the  product  of  his  work  four- fold 
and  at  the  same  time  cut  his  fatigue  in  half.  For  the 
merchant's  clerk  to  know  how  to  watch  the  reactions 
of  all  classes  of  purchasers  and  to  classify  the  same 
may  be  a  guarantee  of  his  rapid  promotion.  For  the 
farmer  to  know  intimately  the  various  types  of  rural 
opinion  and  prejudice  may  enable  him  to  round  up  his 
home  community  and  lead  the  people  all  into  a  de- 
lightful social  fellowship.  For  a  newsboy  to  know 
how  to  cry  his  wares  on  a  busy  street  corner  so  as 
quickly  to  get  the  attention  of  all  classes  of  people 


238    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

may  mean  a  source  of  supply  for  a  hungry  household 
at  home  and  a  definite  step  toward  a  more  lucrative 
business.  For  a  general  to  know  how  to  select  his 
under-officers  and  how  to  appeal  to  his  men  may  prove 
to  be  the  chief  secret  of  a  mighty  victory  over  the 
enemy.  "What  do  you  fear?  You  have  Caesar  with 
you."  So  calling  to  his  men  the  great  Roman  general 
was  enabled  to  drive  his  hordes  on  to  the  death 
struggle.  For  the  great  head  of  the  nation  to  know 
intimately  the  laws  of  human  behaviour  under  pres- 
sure of  hatred  and  battle  may  mean  that  he  will  finally 
rank  in  history  as  the  one  who  was  able  to  point  a 
way  out  of  a  madness  into  which  all  the  powerful  na- 
tions of  the  world  had  deteriorated. 


THE  FIRST  LAW  OF  SUCCESS 

So,  the  first  law  of  success  in  any  business  or  trade 
or  pastime  is  to  know  the  psychology  of  human  be- 
haviour. Such  knowledge  enables  us  not  only  to  judge 
as  to  the  present  conduct  of  others,  but  also  to  esti- 
mate something  of  their  past  and  to  predict  something 
of  their  future.  We  should  and  can  know  one  an- 
other through  and  through.  We  can  quickly  and 
easily  take  a  rough  measure  of  one  another's  person- 
alities. We  can  become  so  well  informed  as  to  the 
common  and  uncommon  types  of  human  conduct  as 
to  be  deceived  by  very  few,  misled  by  practically  none 
and  yet  inspired  by  all. 

A  certain  man  owned  a  grocery  store.  He  stood 
near  the  front  door  and  met  the  patrons,  shaking 
hands,  cajoling,  palavering  and  mixing  in  generally  as 


PSYCHOLOGY  AND  BETTERMENT    239 

a  good  fellow  while  his  clerks  systematically  cheated 
the  customer  with  short  weights  and  spoiled  goods. 
In  six  months  the  store  was  deserted.  The  psycholo- 
gist would  have  known  better  and  not  tried  to  fool  the 
common  people  thus.  Another  grocer  used  similar 
methods  of  good-fellowship  with  his  customers,  ex- 
cept that  his  clerks  made  every  transaction  reflect  the 
apparent  honesty  and  faithfulness  of  the  proprietor. 
Six  years  later  the  business  was  still  going  and  bigger 
than  ever. 

Thus  a  thousand  instances  could  be  given,  covering 
every  phase  of  human  intercourse  to  show  the  sig- 
nificance of  psychology  as  an  instrument  of  success 
and  happiness.  We  can  learn  to  read  one  another's 
thoughts  in  outline,  and  to  discern  one  another's  mo- 
tives by  means  of  an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  work- 
ings of  the  mind  of  the  common  individual  as  his  ideas 
fall  into  their  discoverable  channels  of  classification. 
We  can  enjoy  the  helpful  check  upon  our  temptation 
to  treat  others  unfairly  when  we  know  that  they  too 
understand  the  activities  of  the  mind  and  are  likely 
to  catch  us  in  our  wrong.  We  can  enjoy  the  charming 
experience  of  watching  the  ordinary  infantile  mind 
slowly  unfold  as  a  correlate  of  the  child's  conduct  till 
the  personality  assumes  the  complexity  of  the  adult. 
What  a  wonderful  piece  of  work  is  man,  indeed,  if 
we  understand  how  to  witness  the  magical  operations 
of  his  growing  mind! 

THE  SIN  OF  EXPLOITATION" 

"Man's  inhumanity  to  man  makes  countless  thou- 
sands mourn,"  says  the  Scottish  bard.  But  why,  and 


240    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

how  ?  In  practically  all  such  cases  it  is  merely  a  mat- 
ter of  the  exploitation  of  the  masses  ignorant  of  the 
laws  of  their  own  natures  by  the  classes  who  know 
these  laws  and  know  how  to  use  them  to  their  ex- 
clusive advantage.  What  was  the  false  idea  of  the 
superman  so  recently  exploded  at  a  mighty  cost  other 
than  a  foolish  theory  as  to  human  nature  and  human 
behaviour?  Could  the  masses  of  inhabitants  of  the 
warring  nations  have  known  how  the  consciousness 
grows  definitely  out  of  one's  experience;  could  they 
have  been  taught  from  the  first  how  to  watch  the  rela- 
tionship between  thought  and  conduct ;  could  they  have 
been  roughly  informed  as  how  to  "take  the  measure" 
of  the  one  who  would  lead  them  to  their  destruction — 
then  the  war  should  never  have  been  started.  Judg- 
ment, reflection,  an  intelligent  estimate  of  the  possible 
outcome  of  such  a  cruel  venture  would  have  checked 
the  beastly  ambitions  of  the  war  lords. 

IS  THERE  A  LIGHT  AHEAD? 

So  long  as  the  great  Common  Man  remains  in  super- 
stitious ignorance  of  the  workings  of  his  own  mind 
and  that  of  others,  I  do  not  see  much  light  ahead  for 
human  society.  A  few  designing  ones  will  continue 
to  spring  up  here  and  there  to  exploit  the  unknowing, 
kings  or  no  kings.  There  is  little  in  a  name.  Just 
now  there  is  in  session  over  the  waters  a  company  of 
psychologists  engaged  in  a  peace  conference.  Their 
appalling  task  is  to  determine  what  to  do  with  mil- 
lions of  human  beings  who  know  so  little  about  the 
management  of  themselves.  What  to  do  with  them? 


PSYCHOLOGY  AND  BETTERMENT  241 

Save  the  mark !  The  fact  that  the  peace  delegates  are 
all  warm  with  a  desire  to  deal  sympathetically  with  the 
masses  in  the  back  areas  means  a  most  generous  set- 
tlement. But  the  peace  parley  at  which  sit  delegates 
other  than  those  duly  chosen  by  the  people  concerned 
is  wrong  in  principle,  and  historically  it  has  many 
times  meant  the  beginning  of  worse  bloodshed  for  the 
future  generations. 

How  can  we  do  it?  Who  will  make  a  course  of 
training  that  will  at  least  rank  the  study  of  human 
conduct  in  a  practical  way  along  with  study  of  the  old 
standard  elementary  school  branches?  Who  will  ex- 
plain how  we  may  teach  the  child  to  watch  himself 
do  things  and  to  watch  others  do  things?  Who  will 
explain  how  we  may  teach  men  and  women  to  watch 
one  another  in  their  common  vocational  and  avoca- 
tional  activities?  Who  will  explain  how  to  teach  all 
to  watch  the  people  as  they  move  in  groups  and  crowds 
and  thus  to  discern  the  rules  whereby  they  act?  Who 
will  teach  us  all  how  to  observe  psychologically  the 
course  of  human  events  so  that  we  may  become  intelli- 
gent participants  in  the  world's  progress? 


XXIV 
BRINGING  UP  THE  NEXT  GENERATION 

"Invest  your  money  in  the  next  generation ;  this  one 
is  lost,"  declared  a  lecturer  recently  who  was  address- 
ing a  large  religious  gathering.  His  message  was  that 
of  the  extreme  pessimist.  But  if  we  may  be  permitted 
to  paraphrase  the  statement  somewhat,  it  may  prove 
more  acceptable.  "Invest  your  money  in  the  next 
generation  and  thus  be  assured  of  five-fold  greater 
returns." 

"If  you  ever  wish  to  go  in  for  philanthropy,  if  you 
ever  wish  to  be  of  any  use  in  the  world,  do  something 
for  the  little  children.  If  you  ever  yearn  to  be  truly 
wise,  study  children.  We  can  dress  the  sore,  bandage 
the  wound,  imprison  the  criminal,  heal  the  sick  and 
bury  the  dead;  but  there  is  always  a  chance  that  we 
can  save  the  child.  If  the  great  army  of  philanthro- 
pists ever  exterminates  sin  and  pestilence — ever  works 
out  the  race  salvation — it  will  be  because  a  little  child 
has  led  them,"  said  David  Starr  Jordan. 

REFORM  SLOW  AND  DIFFICULT 

The  most  persistent  thing  in  all  the  familiar  world 
of  spirit  is  habit.  The  most  unyielding  force  derived 
from  the  inherent  dispositions  of  an  ordinary  man  is 

242 


BRINGING  UP  NEXT  GENERATION     243 

his  whole  character.  While  with  the  child  the  very 
law  of  life  is  change,  with  the  mature  adult  perma- 
nence of  character  is  the  great  law.  Then,  why  do  we 
spend  so  much  time  and  effort  trying  to  reform  adults? 
Why  not  expend  the  energy  in  preventing  the  young 
from  taking  up  the  ways  which  are  deplored  in  the 
conduct  of  the  adult?  It  is  partly  an  impatient  and 
unreasonable  desire  to  get  quick  results,  partly  a  sel- 
fish desire  to  win  money  or  fame  or  prestige  through 
a  propaganda  of  reform,  and  partly  an  honest  over- 
estimate of  what  can  be  done  to  change  grown  men. 
The  third  point  of  view  is  usually  characteristic  of 
the  younger  class  of  reformers  and  of  those  who  are 
new  at  the  game.  But  as  the  effort  continues  prac- 
tically every  worker  grows  increasingly  pessimistic 
about  adult  reform  on  any  considerable  scale.  A  few 
even  give  up  in  despair. 

The  one  thing  which  tends  to  cheer  and  brighten 
the  long-term  worker  for  human  welfare  is  the  marked 
possibilities  of  juvenile  reform  and  the  preventive 
measures  which  may  be  brought  into  use. 


PLANNING  A   CAMPAIGN 

A  whole-life  plan  for  training  the  young  has  never 
yet  been  attempted  on  a  large  scale.  The  school  has 
been  provided  for  doing  its  part  very  well  within  the 
class-room.  It  has  long  been  understood  that  the 
home  should  be  held  responsible  for  a  major  part  of 
the  training  of  the  coming  generation,  but  no  far- 
reaching  or  systematic  measure  has  yet  been  perfected 
for  getting  this  valuable  work  done.  The  church  also 


244    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

is  looked  to  for  its  share  of  child  instruction  and  dis- 
cipline; but  its  possibilities  of  contributing  a  vital  part 
in  training  the  young  for  common  life  and  citizenship 
have  never  been  carefully  planned  or  outlined. 

And,  as  previously  explained,  the  community  is  not 
yet  awake  to  its  responsibilities  to  the  young.  Much 
less  has  it  provided  a  method  for  its  significant  part  in 
mothering  the  children. 

We  have  recently  done  our  part  in  winning  a  great 
war  to  make  the  world  safe  for  democracy.  But  the 
democracy  is  somewhat  like  the  rainbow :  it  seems  to 
recede  as  we  advance.  But  just  as  the  function  of  the 
rainbow  is  to  be  admired  and  sought  and  never  caught, 
so  with  a  perfect  democracy.  It  is  a  beautiful  ideal 
ever  to  advance  toward  but  never  to  reach.  The  pos- 
sibilities of  an  ever-growing  and  improving  de- 
mocracy are  most  promising  to-day  when  we  turn 
our  thought  to  the  infantile  and  juvenile  population. 
With  the  aid  of  the  new  psychology  with  which  first 
to  make  an  inquiry  into  the  changing  moods  and  dis- 
positions of  the  growing  child;  and,  second,  to  direct 
these  changes,  the  outlook  seems  most  cheering. 

THE  NEXT  GREAT  STEP 

We  already  know  enough  about  the  nature  of  the 
common  child  to  supply  us  for  a  long  time  to  come 
with  a  working  basis  for  his  direction  and  improve- 
ment. Our  point  of  greatest  lack  is  a  method  of  pro- 
cedure. While  the  makers  of  the  school  curricula 
are  very  well  agreed  as  to  what  constitutes  a  vital 
course  within  the  class-room  the  after-school  at  large 


BRINGING  UP  NEXT  GENERATION     245 

is  yet  without  a  definite  outline  of  method  or  a  co- 
operative plan  of  any  sort.  Here  it  is  every  one  for 
himself.  The  air  is  full  of  schemes  and  the  field  is 
full  of  isolated  organisations  intended  to  help  the 
after-school  situation  so  vital  to  future  society,  but 
there  is  no  centralised  effort  or  team  work. 

The  next  significant  step  in  social  progress,  there- 
fore, is  a  programme  broad  and  comprehensive  enough 
to  make  allowance  for  the  after-school  direction  of  all 
the  children  of  all  the  people  and  in  all  parts  of  the 
community.  And,  fortunately,  we  are  now  fairly  well 
prepared  to  offer  such  a  scheme  of  work.  Informa- 
tion drawn  from  hundreds  of  communities  and  experi- 
ments and  demonstrations  conducted  in  as  many  more, 
have  brought  out  a  fund  of  first-hand  knowledge.  In 
the  case  of  something  like  one  hundred  twenty-five 
urban  and  rural  communities  where  the  juvenile  ef- 
fort was  best  organised  the  first  significant  movement 
was  in  the  direction  of  centralised  and  co-operative 
effort. 

THE  DEADLOCKED  SITUATION 

For  long  years  preceding  the  great  war,  Germany 
and  France  were  so  deadlocked  in  an  endeavour  each 
to  hold  the  other  off  with  bristling  war  preparations 
that  mountains  of  wealth  and  untold  progress  in  other 
more  fundamental  affairs  were  forced  into  the  base 
purpose.  As  we  are  convinced,  Germany  was  the  ag- 
gressor in  this  matter,  but  France  was  compelled  to 
keep  pace  with  her  fortifications  in  order  to  prevent 
withering  away  under  the  Prussian  menace.  So,  along 
scores  of  miles  of  the  army  trenches  during  the  middle 


246    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

years  of  the  war,  for  months  at  a  time,  the  two  oppos- 
ing forces  expended  all  their  vast  resources  simply 
holding  each  other  at  bay. 

On  a  small  scale  this  stalemate  situation  is  being  en- 
acted in  thousands  of  places  throughout  the  Ameri- 
can commonwealth.  Churches  are  holding  against 
churches,  business  men's  clubs  against  other  business 
men's  clubs,  reform  associations  against  reform  asso- 
ciations, and  even  juvenile  welfare  societies  against 
others  of  their  class.  Indeed,  the  large  amount  of  this 
deadlocking  opposition  to  be  found  in  urban  and  rural 
communities  is  the  most  baffling  and  disheartening 
situation  confronting  every  class  of  welfare  promoter 
in  the  field  to-day.  Many  relatively  well-managed 
movements  have  been  launched  on  a  broad  national 
platform  only  to  go  to  pieces  on  the  tough  social 
snag  which  is  here  under  condemnation. 

During  the  past  decade  I  have  watched  a  half  dozen 
or  more  of  these  big  courageous  programmes  of  uplift 
shattered  by  the  deadlocking  jealousies  of  the  local 
forces  expected  to  conduct  the  work  as  outlined.  The 
Country-Life  Movement,  so  ably  launched  by  the  late 
President  Roosevelt  and  so  well  headed  by  Dr.  E.  H. 
Bailey,  dwindled  away  chiefly  because  of  the  petty  lo- 
cal, factional  fights  which  developed  everywhere  in 
connection  with  the  campaign.  A  certain  high  repre- 
sentative of  one  of  the  great  American  church  socie- 
ties worked  most  strenuously  for  a  decade  upon  a  cam- 
paign of  church  extension  work,  and  then  retired,  sick 
and  discouraged,  with  the  significant  exclamation, 
"The  people  of  the  local  communities  simply  will  not 
work  together.  Factional  jealousies  develop  every- 


BRINGING  UP  NEXT  GENERATION     247 

where  and  prostrate  the  effort."     Many  other  such 
testimonies  could  be  given. 


MEETING  A  DELICATE  SITUATION 

To  bring  together  on  a  fair  and  generous  basis  of 
effort  a  lot  of  opposing  factions  is  a  task  which  most 
certainly  calls  for  astute  diplomacy.  To  solve  this 
problem  for  all  is  to  enable  the  world  to  take  a  long 
stride  toward  a  higher  civilisation  and  a  more  per- 
manent peace  and  good-will  among  men.  Just  now 
the  millions  concerned  are  sitting  back  and  watching 
in  the  distance  the  most  momentous  effort  at  concilia- 
tion of  opposing  factions  ever  known.  To  deal  fairly 
and  justly  with  all  the  nations  concerned  at  the  great 
peace  conference  assembled  at  Versailles  and  to  make 
a  programme  upon  which  all  will  unite  for  the  future 
well-being  of  the  race  seemed  a  task  well-nigh  beyond 
human  conception.  But  at  least  the  first  great  step 
toward  that  end  is  now  in  actual  accomplishment. 

But  the  same  general  problem  awaits  us  in  ten  thou- 
sand communities  to-day — a  plan  for  such  unity  and 
co-operation  of  action  as  will  draw  all  forces  into  a 
progressive  movement  for  human  betterment.  Now, 
the  one  who  would  accomplish  this  proposed  centrali- 
sation of  effort  on  the  part  of  a  given  community  must 
first  make  a  brief  socialogical  survey  of  the  place.  He 
must  know  "Who's  who  and  why?"  If  his  business 
is  juvenile  welfare  he  must  ask  for  a  full  list  of  the 
local  organisations  and  societies  which  have,  or  could 
have,  anything  to  do  with  the  direction  of  the  young. 
These  groups  will  fall  into  several  classes,  as,  so- 


248    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

cial,  religious,  educational,  welfare,  philanthropic, 
municipal,  economic,  commercial  and  political.  The 
name  and  the  active  or  recognised  leader  of  each  of 
these  groups  must  first  be  obtained.  Each  of  these 
heads  may  then  be  urged  to  appear  at  a  general  con- 
ference as  representative  of  his  order,  or  send  some 
one  to  act  in  his  stead. 

During  the  course  of  his  inquiry  the  advance  agent 
of  a  proposed  welfare  organisation  will  test  the  situa- 
tion carefully  for  factional  friction  and  for  the  group 
or  society  apparently  most  generally  acknowledged 
as  having  the  best  right  to  assume  the  leadership. 
Thus,  while  the  invitation  to  participate  in  a  central 
movement  will  be  a  strictly  whosoever-will  affair — 
and  for  that  reason  most  appealing — the  movement 
will  very  probably  have  to  find  a  head  within  one  of 
the  co-ordinate  groups. 

PSYCHOLOGY  OF  LEADERSHIP 

In  the  course  of  organising  a  new  movement  among 
any  ordinary  people  the  visiting  promoter — for  such 
he  should  be — will  find  the  psychology  of  leadership 
a  most  delicate  affair  to  handle.  He  must  always  test 
the  whole  situation  carefully  for  the  name  of  one 
around  whom  the  largest  number  will  rally.  Other 
things  being  equal,  it  is  very  desirable  to  select  this 
person  from  a  list  of  those  who  stand  in  a  class  to 
themselves.  For  example,  a  city  has  several  church 
heads,  several  presidents  of  clubs — all  co-ordinate — 
and  to  choose  one  of  these  as  the  general  leader  is 
often  a  signal  for  the  most  bitter  jealousy  and  opposi- 


BRINGING  UP  NEXT  GENERATION     249 

tion.  However,  the  same  place  necessarily  has  only 
one  mayor,  one  superintendent  of  schools,  one  head  of 
federation  of  clubs,  and  so  on.  To  have  one  of  these 
appointed  to  head  the  new  organisation  is  often  the 
safest  procedure. 


A  DEFINITE   PURPOSE 

The  next  important  step  in  attempting  to  organise 
a  home  community  for  better  child  welfare  and  a 
better  future  for  democracy  is  to  draw  up  a  clear  out- 
line of  the  work  to  be  undertaken.  Now  is  the  time 
to  avoid  confusing  details  and  to  undertake  a  few 
important  things  rather  than  a  large  number.  The 
people  of  the  community  must  be  enabled  easily  to 
keep  a  clear  vision  of  the  purposes  as  launched  or  their 
efforts  will  wane. 

Therefore,  what  form  should  the  proposed  cam- 
paign assume — baby  saving,  child  health  and  sanita- 
tion, new  school  conditions,  vacation  employment  of 
the  young,  home-and-school  gardening,  street-and-alley 
safe-guards,  better  adolescent  social  affairs,  and  the 
like?  Half  a  dozen  divisional  parts  are  enough  into 
which  to  divide  any  constructive  programme  for  juven- 
ile improvement.  Each  of  these  should  have  its  sub- 
committee responsible  to  the  general  committee,  and 
each  should  occasionally  report  progress  at  a  general 
meeting  called  for  that  purpose. 

As  explained  in  a  chapter  above,  publicity  is  most 
important  for  any  kind  of  progressive  movement. 
The  people  must  be  kept  closely  in  touch  with  the  de- 
tails of  the  effort  to  the  end  that  they  will  continue  to 


250    MAN  AND  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

reflect  upon  its  purpose  and  to  discuss  its  merits  and 
possibilities.  It  is  the  thing  which  the  common  people 
are  gossiping  about  on  the  street  corners  and  in  their 
chance  meetings  which  "goes  over"  with  commendable 
energy.  The  publicity  agent  for  any  important  wel- 
fare movement  should  be  selected  with  unusual  care. 
He  must  be  a  person  who  can  first  visualise  the  move- 
ment but  he  must  also  have  a  sense  for  news.  His  task 
will  then  be  that  of  writing  terse  and  interesting  news 
items  for  the  press  at  home  and  at  large,  all  intended 
for  the  good  of  the  cause.  It  is  necessary  to  urge  here 
that  these  items  must  first  have  the  merit  of  news,  and 
second,  the  merit  of  propaganda  material. 

PATIENCE  AND  PROGRESS 

Finally,  if  we  can  succeed  with  our  programme  of 
juvenile  betterment  and  spread  its  purposes  abroad  into 
every  corner  of  the  land — especially  into  the  much 
neglected  after-school — we  shall  not  necessarily  worry 
about  the  welfare  of  the  coming  society,  for  that  will 
tend  to  take  care  of  itself.  And  then,  if  we  can  induce 
the  nations  abroad  to  believe  as  we  do,  that  juvenile 
welfare  is  the  first  great  fundamental  step  toward 
higher  enlightenment,  we  shall  have  made  tremendous 
advancement  toward  making  the  entire  world  safe  for 
democracy. 


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